{"id":373934,"date":"2025-12-28T22:29:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T22:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/373934\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T22:29:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T22:29:17","slug":"steven-gerrard-names-player-he-wanted-liverpool-to-sign-before-joining-rivals-football-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/373934\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Gerrard names player he wanted Liverpool to sign before joining rivals | Football | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven Gerrard<\/a> has voiced his disappointment that Liverpool<\/a> missed out on securing Declan Rice’s signature. The Arsenal<\/a> midfielder has become instrumental under Mikel Arteta as the Gunners chase Premier League<\/a> glory. Gerrard praised the England star and believed the Reds should have made a stronger push for the 26-year-old before Arsenal triumphed in the transfer battle with West Ham United.<\/p>\n

The north Londoners secured Rice’s services in 2023 following the Hammers’ Conference League triumph, splashing over \u00a3100million to land their target. Liverpool<\/a> were never seriously linked with a move for Rice, with Manchester United<\/a> and Arsenal<\/a> leading the pursuit that summer. Instead, Jurgen Klopp<\/a> brought in Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister for a combined \u00a3100million from RB Leipzig and Brighton and Hove Albion respectively, as part of their midfield overhaul.<\/p>\n

Gerrard has since heaped praise on the Arsenal star, insisting he possesses the ideal attributes for a central midfielder.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Smith Brothers<\/a> podcast, the former Liverpool skipper revealed: “I love Declan Rice, I’ve been singing his praises for a long time. I coached Villa against West Ham before he went to Arsenal, I didn’t realise how big he was because hadn’t met him in person.<\/p>\n

“You get in the tunnel and think, ‘oh my god, that’s some profile for a midfielder’. If you’re building a midfielder, he’s got a body to die for.<\/p>\n

“If you’re 6ft1in, 6ft2in, and have the legs, the power, that’s the midfielder you want to be. He was calm in possession, an animal out of it, up and down, I really like him as a person as well.<\/p>\n

“I think he’s really getting into that class where he’s becoming a world-class midfielder. He’s maybe one we should’ve tried to grab from West Ham. I don’t know whether we did but imagine him in this midfield now.”<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time Gerrard has showered the midfielder with similar acclaim, suggesting Rice’s switch to Arsenal has elevated his performances to new heights.<\/p>\n

“In the Premier League, I think Declan Rice is a really, really good midfielder,” he added.<\/p>\n

“I like an awful lot about him. I like the kid, I like his mentality, I like the way he’s gone to the next level at Arsenal, he’s adding different things to his game. I think he’d be a really tough, strong opponent, a good challenge.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Arne Slot<\/a> remains under scrutiny at Anfield despite their 2-1 triumph over Wolves maintaining their winning streak of four consecutive victories.<\/p>\n

The Reds currently occupy fourth spot in the Premier League standings and remain undefeated across seven fixtures in all competitions.<\/p>\n

However, their chaotic period spanning September through November witnessed nine defeats, including a devastating sequence of four consecutive losses.<\/p>\n

During a candid chat with TNT Sports, Gerrard threw his weight behind the Dutch manager and pledged his unwavering support to the Reds should they require it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He declared: “I’ll be brutally, brutally honest with you. I’d help Liverpool in any department at any minute of every day. I’d help them with anything.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want Arne Slot to lose his job. I want him to fix this and turn it around and make Liverpool great. I was bouncing all over the city four or five months ago when Liverpool won the league.”<\/p>\n

Gerrard’s devotion to his boyhood club shone through as he added: “I’m a Liverpool fan. I want the best for Liverpool. But if Liverpool need me in any department at any time, I’ll be there for them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steven Gerrard has voiced his disappointment that Liverpool missed out on securing Declan Rice’s signature. The Arsenal midfielder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[159631,49,48,38566,5694,112078,1417,739,159633,67477,159632,574,561,82,101109],"class_list":["post-373934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-arsenal-transfers","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-declan-rice","tag-football-section","tag-football-news","tag-liverpool","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-liverpool-latest","tag-liverpool-news","tag-liverpool-transfers","tag-premier-league","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-steven-gerrard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}