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Steven Gerrard Wanted Liverpool to Sign ‘World-Class’ Arsenal Star Declan Rice
Perhaps there aren’t better scouts in football than former players who played the game, and Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard was one of those. The Englishman enjoyed a trophy-laden career, during which he captained the Reds to Champions League glory in the Miracle of Istanbul.
Once Gerrard called time on his playing career, he turned to management, but his time in the dugout hasn’t quite reached the heights he experienced as a marauding midfielder. His only coaching role in the Premier League came at Aston Villa, and there were more lows than highs at Villa Park.
The 45-year-old was once tipped to succeed Jurgen Klopp at Anfield and still maintains a close bond with his boyhood club. So much so, he has rued his former side missing out on one of Arsenal‘s star men, who are proving vital in this season’s title race.
Gerrard Wanted Liverpool To Sign Arsenal Star
Gerrard’s eleven months in charge of Villa gave him the chance to see which English players would be following in his footsteps, both for club and country. Declan Rice is, for many, the closest the Three Lions have come to finding a similarly all-rounded midfield talent as the nation’s former skipper.
Rice is shining in the league this season and his set-piece accuracy has been a crucial asset for Mikel Arteta’s league-leading Gunners. He’s putting in similar world-class performances to those that fans have become so used to seeing from the former Liverpool skipper.
Gerrard waxed lyrical about Rice while appearing on The Smith Bros podcast:
“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.”
He continued by pointing out Rice’s dominant physique:
“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.
“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.”
The Englishman has now admitted he wishes Liverpool had swooped for the 25-year-old while he was still at West Ham United:
“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.”
Rice was one of the Premier League’s most in-demand talents in the summer of 2023, and it was Arsenal who secured his signature. The Gunners paid a club-record £105 million for the England international, who was coming off a Europa Conference League win with West Ham.
Liverpool didn’t move for Rice and instead strengthened their midfield with the signings of Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai. This came at a time when long-serving holding midfielder Fabinho departed Anfield and the club needed a long-term replacement.
Jurgen Klopp ‘Wanted’ Liverpool To Sign Rice
While the Merseysiders didn’t make a concrete approach to signing Rice, various reports suggested Jurgen Klopp wanted him. A report, a year before his Arsenal move, claimed that the German had made the former West Ham captain his top target, but the finances involved made a possible deal too difficult.
Klopp came up against Arteta’s North London giants after Rice’s switch to the Emirates and he made clear his admiration ahead of a match between the two clubs. He said in December 2023:
“They’re really consistent, physically strong, they didn’t get worse with Declan (Rice) in the team, let me say it like that.”
Rice has put in dominant displays that back Gerrard’s stance over his physicality, including against Real Madrid in the Champions League last season. The former Liverpool man may wonder whether Arne Slot’s team would be defending their title in better fashion if they had managed to beat Arsenal to his signing.
