Rio Ferdinand has accused Liverpool of showing a 'lack of loyalty' to Steven Gerrard after the Reds icon was allowed to leave the club in the final years of his playing career.
Gerrard progressed through the ranks at Anfield to become one of Liverpool's all-time greats, winning a host of silverware and accolades during his storied 17-year playing career on Merseyside. But the 42-year-old - who is now the head coach at Aston Villa - was allowed to leave the club in his twilight years and ended up signing for LA Galaxy after a new contract at Liverpool failed to materialise.
During a discussion loyalty in football on his FIVE YouTube channel, Ferdinand slammed Liverpool for failing to stand by Gerrard in the final days of his playing career. And the former Manchester United defender pointed out that Gerrard shunned a move elsewhere when he was at the peak of his powers to stay loyal to the club when they needed him.
Ferdinand said: "He's been loyal to them, he had that obscene offer we're hearing from Chelsea. They courted him, they tried every which way they could through players and what not trying to get him and unsettle him. He became unsettled, flirted with the idea a little bit, but actually, loyalty probably made him stay at Liverpool.
"Whatever happened, he was courted by Chelsea. He decides to stay, and then he gets towards the end of his career and the club don't want to give him a new deal. Bearing in mind [he's] arguably the club's best-ever player, been apart of iconic moments at the football club and would have had so much to offer young players staying there from a culture, a mentality and somebody they can look at and identify as a local lad, but they let him go to LA Galaxy.
"There was the ability for him to stay there as a player-coach and groom him into being a coach in the system that they've got or a manager, but they chose to do something totally different and allowed him to go to LA Galaxy. So when you talk about loyalty maybe if the club were being shown an element of loyalty there they might have gone, you know what, because of that loyalty he's showing us, we're going to give him a bit back at the end of his career."
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Speaking shortly after his departure was confirmed back in 2015, Gerrard admitted that he had regrets over his Liverpool exit. He previously told the Liverpool ECHO : “Yes, if a contract had been put in front of me in pre-season I would have signed it.
“I’d just retired from England to concentrate all my efforts on Liverpool. I didn’t want my club games to be tailored. My injury record had been fantastic for the past two and a half years and I had a great season from a personal point of view last season.
“It’s all ifs, buts and hindsight now. That period between the summer and the end of November gave me thinking time. There’s no blame and I’m not angry about it. There are other people in the squad and the club had other things to worry about.”
