We’re starting to hear stories from recently retired players about clubs who made bids for them and it does make you wonder how different things could’ve been.
In the case of Steven Gerrard, he claimed that Chelsea made a bid of around £37.5m for him in 2005, when he would’ve been in the prime of his career.
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It’s not clear if it was in January or that Summer, but you have to imagine if he made the move that there’s no way he would be a Liverpool legend, they probably wouldn’t have won the Champions League that year if he had left in January either.
It also makes you wonder what that kind of transfer fee could buy you in the current market. Gary Neville gave a prety hilarious response that puts things into context:
Gary Neville on Soccerbox asking Steven Gerrard about that bid by Chelsea in 2005:
? Neville: “How much was the bid?”
? Gerrard: “£37.5m. What would you get for that now?”
? Neville: “Half of Fred!” pic.twitter.com/PWM5KblSPK
— Football Tweet (@Football__Tweet) December 28, 2019
His response might be slightly hampered by Fred’s recent resurgence that’s seen him become a key player in the Man United midfield, but there’s still no way that he’s twice the player that Steven Gerrard was.
It’s another example of how inflated transfer fees have become, but it’s also interesting when it gets you thinking how different history could’ve been. If he stayed at Chelsea for the rest of his career, we could’ve had a constant 10 years of “can Gerrard and Lampard play in the same midfield together?”
It’s probably best for everyone that he stayed.