SOCCER: Chelsea last night tabled a British-record bid of £32 million for Steven Gerrard in an attempt to prise the Liverpool captain from Anfield, leaving the England midfielder facing the biggest dilemma of his career.
A chaotic day of bitter stand-offs and rushed attempts at reconciliation on Merseyside ended with Gerrard, accompanied by his representative Struan Marshall, back in talks with the Liverpool hierarchy at Melwood.
The chairman David Moores and the chief executive Rick Parry departed a scheduled board meeting at Anfield to convene at the training ground after the players' second session of the day, in a last-ditch attempt to persuade the 25-year-old to stay.
Their offer, now put to the player and his agent, constitutes a two-year contract extension running to 2009 on improved terms of £100,000 a week, the deal Gerrard had been seeking when talks began last Wednesday. The player was thinking over their proposal last night but the initial apparent indifference to settle his future has damaged relations.
Liverpool are privately pessimistic about their prospects of persuading the player to stay, and Gerrard now has a straight, if agonising, choice to make. He can either climb down from his decision to break off negotiations for good, or he can maintain his hardline stance and actively seek a passage away from the club he joined as an eight-year-old.
Chelsea's offer, which could rise to as much as £35 million depending upon future honours, crystallises Jose Mourinho's long-standing interest in the England international and is designed to deflect similar interest from Real Madrid. If the bid is accepted, it would eclipse the current British record of £29.1 million paid by Manchester United to Leeds for Rio Ferdinand in 2002.
Gerrard's frustration at the delay in beginning meaningful contract talks in the wake of the Champions League final in May prompted him to call off discussions on Saturday after only one meeting, with those in his camp privately insistent that his stance would not mellow.
He departed training yesterday without a comment or even an autograph for the gaggle of supporters waiting at the gates, having discussed the situation with Benitez. The Spaniard reassured Gerrard that he remains integral to his plans.
As if to reiterate as much, Benitez used yesterday's press conference - designed primarily to introduce the Holland international Boudewijn Zenden, who has completed his free transfer from Middlesbrough, and to announce three further signings from Spanish clubs - to stress passionately that he is eager to retain his captain's services. Yet his frustration that talks had been fractured was clear during a vaguely surreal outburst which culminated in him stating that he hoped Gerrard would join the club's coaching staff in the future.
"We tried three times last season to talk with Steve about the future and a new deal and he said that we needed to wait," said Benitez. "So we waited. Then people said it was about whether we could win trophies here, and we won the most important trophy in the world (the Champions League). So they said we needed to improve the squad, and now we are. We are signing Jose Reina (of Villareal), the best goalkeeper in Spain; Mark Gonzalez (the Albacete winger), the best player in Chile; and Antonio Barragan (of Seville), a very promising right-back.
"I can assure you that we want Steven to stay with us for the next maybe eight years. If I renew my deal and stay here for four more years, I would like to see Steve as assistant manager or a chief scout or as a manager when I go."
Benitez hopes to buy more players, with Southampton manager Harry Redknapp confirming yesterday that striker Peter Crouch, for whom Liverpool had a £5 million bid turned down last month, has indicated his desire to move to Anfield. Redknapp also confirmed that Lions rugby coach Clive Woodward will become technical director St Mary's.
A libel action brought by Liverpool's Harry Kewell against former England striker Gary Lineker and the Sunday Telegraph has been settled out of court. A jury in London was discharged last month when it failed to reach a verdict on the action taken by Kewell after comments in an article written by Lineker over the Australian's move from Leeds United in 2003.
Craig Bellamy was last night holding further talks with the Everton manager David Moyes with the two parties apparently unable to reach a compromise on his wage demands of approximately £2.5 million per year. Everton have yet to agree to Newcastle's £6 million valuation.
