Caughtoffside lists 10 players that, like Steven Gerrard, deserve to have lifted the Premier League trophy, but haven’t.
Following Liverpool’s dramatic 3-2 win over Manchester City earlier this month, Steven Gerrard, with tears in his eyes, gave an impassioned motivational speech to his teammates that was broadcast on television screens worldwide.
It that moment, the Reds skipper, a genuine one-club man, currently in his 16th season as a first-team player at Anfield, captured the hearts of a nation.
Liverpool are the team that most neutrals – outside of Manchester – want to win the title this season. Some cite the Reds’ exciting attacking football as the reason for their backing of Brendan Rodgers’ side.
However, many simply want to see Stevie G, captain of England, lift the trophy that he has dreamed about getting intimate with for his entire career.
Gerrard is, without doubt, a player that deserves a Premier League medal, but he hasn’t got one, yet!
Caughtoffside have compiled a list of 10 other players who haven’t lifted the famous trophy, but should have.
10. Jamie Carragher
Like Liverpool teammate Gerrard, Carragher was a one-team man. Before hanging up his boots in May 2013, the no-nonsense defender made 508 Premier League appearances, which is a club record.
The Reds twice finished as runners-up during Carragher’s time in the first-team at Anfield. Despite never getting a Premier League winner’s medal, Carragher did get his hands on the FA Cup twice, the League Cup on three occasions, the Uefa Cup and, of course, the Champions League.
9. David Ginola
The Frenchman and his glorious hair challenged for Premier League glory during both of their seasons at Newcastle United, but the duo were edged out by Manchester United on both occasions.
Ginola’s proudest top-flight moment came after his 1997 exit from the Magpies though. In 1999, while playing for Tottenham Hotspur, he won both the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards.
8. Xabi Alonso
The Spanish midfielder has been capped 109 times at senior international level, picking up the World Cup and two European Championships along the way. He has also won a La Liga title, two Copa del Reys, an FA Cup, a League Cup and the Champions League.
However, the Premier League trophy managed to elude him during his five-year stay at Anfield, although he did come within four points of glory in his final season before joining Real Madrid in a £30m move in 2009.
7. Gary Speed
The now-deceased Welshman was part of the Leeds United side that were crowned champions of England in 1992 – the year before the Premier League began.
Speed, who made 249 league appearances for the Whites, went on to star for Everton, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers following his Elland Road exit in 1996.
6. Robbie Fowler
Nicknamed ‘God’ by his supporters at Liverpool, Fowler netted 129 goals in 267 top-flight games during two spells at Anfield. Including his goals for Leeds United and Manchester City, he scored 163.
Only Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard – all of whom have winner’s medals – have scored more Premier League goals than Fowler.
5. Marcel Desailly
World Cup winner Desailly, one of the Premier League’s best ever defenders, narrowly missed out on playing a major part in Chelsea’s Russian-fuelled revolution.
The Ghana-born France star left Stamford Bridge to end his career in Qatar in June 2004, just a year after Roman Abramovich bought the Blues.
4. Brad Friedel
The big American surely deserves a medal simply for longevity. He holds the record for most consecutive Premier League appearances – 310 – having not missed a single game between August 2004 and October 2012.
He is no longer Tottenham Hotspur’s number one, having been replaced by Hugo Lloris, but he has still made nine first-team appearances this term at the ripe old age of 42.
3. Fernando Torres
El Nino almost single-handedly carried Liverpool’s attack during the 2008-09 season, in which the Reds were narrowly pipped to the post by Man United.
He later joined Chelsea for a British-record transfer fee of £50m in January 2011 and bagged vital goals in the Blues’ Champions League triumph in 2012. Surely he will win the Premier League before his career ends?
2. Gianfranco Zola
Zola joined Chelsea from Cagliari in 1996. At that time, more than half of the players in the Stamford Bridge club’s first-team squad were British – imagine that!
The little Italian is still one of the Blues’ all-time best-loved players, largely thanks to his unrivalled creativity and excellent close control. Unfortunately for Zola, the majority of his teammates were vastly inferior and, as a result, third place was as high as his side finished during his seven Premier League seasons in West London.
However, he did win two FA Cups, one League Cup and one Uefa Cup Winners’ Cup for the King’s Road outfit.
1. Cess Fabregas
On Sunday April 25, 2004, Arsenal won their last Premier League title. 112 days later, Fabregas made his league debut for the Gunners, aged just 17.
From that point on, until he left England to return to boyhood club Barcelona in August 2011, Fabregas, who became captain of the North Londoners in November 2008, was an integral part of every side that boss Arsene Wenger built.
Fabregas won the 2004 Community Shield and the 2005 FA Cup for Arsenal, but his Gunners career was punctuated by a series of second-place finishes – second in the 2004-05 Premier League, second in the 2006 Champions League, second in the 2005 Community Shield and second in the League Cup, in both 2007 and 2011.
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