Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has had a dramatic change of heart and decided to stay at Anfield.
The 25-year-old told Liverpool he wanted to leave after contract negotiations broke down.
Chelsea looked set to land Gerrard after having an initial £32m bid rejected by Liverpool.
But Gerrard has another change of heart after talks with chief executive Rick Parry, who said: “He realises how much the club means to him.”

You know that he is Liverpool through and through.

He has been offered a contract paying him £100,000 a week.

Chelsea were reputedly about to up their first offer of £32,000,000 and a weekly salary of over £125,000.

So why would he consider leaving?

Ok, in the current climate of G8 talks and poverty in Africa, 30,000 kids a day dying etc, how can you justify a salary and a transfer fee like those being banded around.

I don’t begrudge soccer players that sort of money. You can’t say they are worth that much, but when you look at their careers it can be put into perspective (to some degree).

Gerrard is at the peak of his career. From now on it is all downhill. It won’t be a steep slope and hopefully he be playing as good as he did last year for a few more years yet (not that I am a Liverpool fan by the way. In fact, being a Chelsea supporter I’m disappointed that we didn’t land him. Him and Lampard in the same team would have been an awesome midfield).

I know quite a few ex-proffessional football players who through injury had their careers stopped dead in their tracks. Often giving up a decent education or failing that, a career path that would support them in order to concentrate on their soccer.

Once injured and unable to play anymore, what can they do? Sports teachers, tv pundits, insurance salesman, all a far cry from being the thing that they’ve always wanted to be. Their careers are quite short in terms of the number of years worked so they deserve as much as they can get really. If Gerrard was injured tomorrow and unable to play soccer again, he’d be on the scrap heap before you could say “Now then our kid!”.

But even though I agree with the salaries, it is the transfer fees that I object to.

So when you look at all the fuss about why he didn’t sign sooner for Liverpool, he was looking after number 1, and rightly so. He could be out of football in another 10 years, or next week, you just don’t know. He has to look after number 1 regardless of what his heart is telling him.