Just how close was he to actually sign for Chelsea. Does anyone actually know.
July 2005.
I want to leave Anfield - Gerrard
Steven Gerrard has told Liverpool he wants to leave Anfield after turning down a new £100,000-a-week contract.
The 25-year-old captain made his move after Liverpool rejected a £32m bid from Premiership champions Chelsea.
"Steven has told us he will not accept our offer of an improved and extended contract because he wants to leave," a Liverpool club statement read.
Gerrard also issued a statement which said: "This has been the hardest decision I have ever had to make."
He added: "I fully intended to sign a new contract after the Champions League final, but the events of the past five to six weeks have changed all that.
"I have too much respect for the club and people at it to get involved in a slagging match."
Reports from Anfield suggest the club will not allow Gerrard to leave until he has submitted a formal transfer request.
Gerrard delivered the news to Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry via his agent, Struan Marshall.
And Parry reflected: "The club has to be bigger than any individual. It's the ups and downs of football.
"Now we have to move on. We have done our best, but he has made it clear he wants to go and I think it looks pretty final."
The Anfield chief was left disappointed after Gerrard's decision to leave, just a year after persuading the midfielder that the club could match his ambitions.