'The England midfield player is the latest name to jump to the top of Roman Abramovich’s wish list and Gerrard and his representatives are doing nothing to dampen talk of a move.
While there was no confirmation of a report yesterday that Gerrard had handed in a transfer request, there is no doubt that Chelsea’s interest has turned the head of the Liverpool captain. As well as paying as much as £40 million for Gerrard, which would set a British transfer record, Chelsea would be able to double his wages to about £6 million a year.
Although they cannot compete with a salary offer that would make Gerrard the best-paid player in the country, and one of the top ten most richly rewarded footballers in the world, Liverpool were hoping that a change of manager would convince their captain to stay with his home-town club. Afraid of losing Gerrard and Michael Owen, Liverpool have replaced Gérard Houllier with Rafael Benítez from Valencia, but the board are still concerned that their most valuable assets are looking for a way out of Anfield. Even though Liverpool have qualified for the Champions League, they are trailing a long way behind Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United.
One complication for Gerrard is that he has three years to run on a contract that he signed only last season, but if Chelsea were to make a huge offer and he was to demand a move, Liverpool would find it almost impossible to block the transfer.
Manchester United also covet Gerrard, so much so that Sir Alex Ferguson recently described the 24-year-old as the most influential player in the Premiership and the natural successor to Roy Keane. United’s difficulty would be in convincing Gerrard to move to Liverpool’s local rivals and they could never compete with Chelsea’s spending power.'