Why Gerrard should have joined United to fulfil his potential (Fabregas should do the same), the 39th Game is inevitable and women's teams should put a man in goal....

What a shame Liverpool fans made it impossible for Steven Gerrard to sign for Manchester United. He couldn’t even consider it. The venom and hate that would undoubtedly have been aimed at him and his family would have made it impossible for him to fulfil Sir Alex Ferguson’s wish of having Gerrard lead the United midfield.
Have no doubt that Fergie would not have hesitated to sign him, and the story goes that Gerrard was allegedly approached about a move to Old Trafford in 2004.

Wasted potential: Steven Gerrard has represented Liverpool in countless matches against Manchester United over the years... but would he have been better off joining them?

   

 

Not even the revelation in Gerrard’s autobiography that he wore a United shirt as a kid and his hero was Bryan Robson would have made a difference to the Anfield fans. Some would call it passion and rivalry, others would call it unreasonable, and it could even be considered a restraint of trade.
Gerrard has admitted he wasn’t a passionate Liverpool fan until he started training with them – before that he would be at Goodison watching Everton one week and at Anfield the next. He loved the game not any one club, saying: 'my heart was taken by football, not by one tribe.'
I understand why Liverpool fans would have been angry about Gerrard moving to United. But the bigger picture is worth looking at and I’m sure, like me, you would conclude that he belonged at United.
You see, Steven Gerrard deserved to win more than the Champions League, a UEFA Cup, the FA Cup twice and the League Cup three times.
He deserved more than being the man of the match by a mile in one of the most memorable finals of all time that night in Istanbul on 2005. On top of this amazing success, he deserved to be a champion of England, a title-winning captain.
Sadly for him he has been at Liverpool in an era where his ambitions far outweighed those of the club. Whilst boardroom bungling and managerial movement have defined the recent past at Anfield, Gerrard has stood chest out, shoulders back and head high as a symbol of defiance.
He has been shouting as loud as he could: 'Liverpool was, is and always will be a great club!' And that has carried the fans through some mediocre times by Liverpool’s own standards.
In a world where passion would remain exactly that instead of spilling over into hate, Gerrard would have joined United as the Rafa Benitez reign at Anfield started to falter – maybe around summer 2009 after Liverpool finished 2nd just four points behind United.
They then sold Xabi Alonso for £30million and bought Alberto Aquilani and Glen Johnson for a combined total of £38million – the signs of decline were clearly there. A year later Benitez was gone.
Had Gerrard moved to United he would have added at least another Champions League title, and maybe three or more Premier League titles. It could never have happened of course. What a shame.
Gerrard was the player to give United the upper hand over Barcelona – so the player and United both lost out.
You have to applaud Gerrard’s loyalty and dedication, but by signing a new two-year contract, Gerrard – in my opinion the greatest Liverpool player of all time – has confirmed he has given up any chance of winning the title, and therefore confirmed he will go down as the greatest player to have tried but failed to win the Premier League crown.
I have nothing but admiration for Steven Gerrard, a man who gave absolutely everything for the cause, brought a string of trophies to Anfield, and was the main man when Liverpool fans enjoyed probably the best night of their lives in May 2005.
Gerrard’s legend status at Liverpool is intact. The price he paid was forfeiting any chance of being a champion of England.

 

At Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas wasn’t a big fish in a little pond, he was an Abramovich-size yacht in a bidet.
At Barcelona he has been the odd one out: he didn’t quite cut it, no matter what the assist or passing stats might tell you, and no matter how many minutes he played on the pitch.
Sure he won medals at the Nou Camp, but that’s not the issue here.

Make your mind up time: Cesc Fabregas should join Manchester United this summer to make the most of his talent

It’s about Cesc Fabregas finding a home and finding his natural level. He needs to be one of the key players in a team winning trophies regularly - that’s actually what his talents deserve.
But he isn’t quite good enough to achieve that at Barcelona in this era when the club has been the very best over a sustained period of time.
It would almost certainly have been different had he not left for north London as a teenager, but that’s something he may well go on to regret when he looks back on his career.
He could have followed his idol Pep Guardiola, but Bayern Munich signed Thiago Alcantara from Barca instead. That must have hurt because Cesc is the perfect hybrid. With his dual purpose technique and physicality, he is made for Munich.

Chosen one: Pep Guardiola opted to bring Thiago Alcantara to Bayern Munich from Barcelona instead of Fabregas

Arsenal may have first refusal on Fabregas if he is to leave Barcelona but he might as well have 'failure' tattooed on his forehead if he returns to the Emirates.
It would be the same as having to go back to the reserves after the manager wrongly thought you were good enough for the first team.
And let’s not forget this is the former Arsenal captain who decided to attend a Grand Prix and tweet from it, rather than support his team-mates in their quest for much-needed victory at Fulham.
It wasn’t the greatest end for Fabregas at Arsenal, and so many Gunners’ fans declared they’d had the best out of him when he left that I’d be surprised if they would want him back.

Not welcome here: It's by no means certain Arsenal fans would welcome Fabregas back, even if they had the opportunity

It’s time for Cesc Fabregas to step up to the plate. Wasted on the periphery at Barcelona, too big for Arsenal, Manchester United is his home.
Medals can be misinterpreted (remember Djimi Traore?), so having failed to achieve his targets so far in his club career, it is time for Fabregas to go to Manchester United and do something substantial, it’s time to become a major player at a major club.

 

After thrashing an ‘Indonesia Dream Team’ 7-0 Arsene Wenger said it felt like a home game because so many in the 50,000 crowd in Jakarta were supporting the north Londoners, wearing Arsenal shirts and singing Gooner songs louder than they do at the Emirates.
Arsenal’s tour continues and they will become the first Premier League club to play in Vietnam. Meantime Chelsea are heading to Jakarta soon - Bank Negara Indonesia has issued more than 60,000 Chelsea-branded payment cards since August 2012.

Passionate: Arsenal supporters in Indonesia greet their heroes as the Gunners visit Asia on their pre-season tour

That’s after Mourinho’s men have made trips to Thailand and Malaysia. Manchester United are in the Far East and Australia this summer, while City are in South Africa and then Hong Kong. Even Fulham are in Costa Rica.
Throw in European dates between the end of these tours and the start of the Premier League season, and I’m left awestruck that the physios, doctors, conditioners and sports scientists have developed systems and techniques to leave footballers completely unaffected by the tiredness and exhaustion caused when travelling and working in intense heat.
Most mortals like you and I would be drained. I’m sure the huge amount of money clubs receive for these tours makes it easier.
You know what it’s all leading to don’t you? The so-called ‘39th game,’ and I’m not against it.

39th game: The extra Premier League fixture played overseas is an inevitability given the popularity of top clubs around the world

Four years ago at a fitness centre near Nottingham, I met a senior figure within football, one of the most respected men in the game.
A former player and manager, who went from administrator to executive. Off the record he told me that the 39th game will happen, no matter who tries to stop it.
The opportunity for two top teams to play a Premier League game abroad and make a large fortune out of it cannot be ignored forever.
The pre-season tours make good money – but imagine the kind of figures that could be achieved if Manchester United and Liverpool agreed to play a Premier League game in Bangkok or Beijing? Mind-blowing.
An extra game, everybody on neutral ground, three more points up for grabs and a stack of cash.
But I wouldn’t have it at the end of the season. I’d make this a constructive viable alternative to the winter break that many seem to want. If a break is ever introduced you know clubs will all disappear to make money abroad anyway.

Blue is the colour: Vocal Chelsea fans meet the team at the airport in Bangkok

Here’s my plan: scrap FA Cup replays totally, complete the 3rd round of the Cup on the first weekend of the new year as usual, and the following weekend have ten Premier League games at different venues abroad.
Then back to normal. If they want an extra couple of days off (although these pre-season tours show players aren’t too tired for anything when the money is right) then shift the Premier League programme the weekend after the global games to midweek.
There are plenty of venues – Australia, USA, South Africa and the Far East. Qatar and Russia ahead of the World Cups would welcome Premier League showpiece games, and Scandinavia is another possibility.

Overseas: Most Premier League clubs are spending at least part of their pre-season abroad, including Swansea City, who have been playing in Holland

All the clubs will want it, foreign owners will be frothing at the mouth at the thought if it – new Fulham owner Shahid Khan made a point of talking about the 'global reach' of the Premier League when I interviewed him this week - while club executives and decision-makers have all gone way past the point of caring what the fans think.
I believe enough supporters will be interested in making the trip to give the clubs justification to press ahead with it. All they need to do is subsidise a plane filled with fans and they can point to that as evidence the ‘39th’ game has complete support.
It’s sad in so many ways that the wishes of the traditional football fan are totally ignored. But it’s a global game, and as my man in Nottingham told me: 'It will happen, and it will be brilliant.'

 

My talkSPORT colleague Andy Jacobs read my mind when he suggested on air this week that women’s football teams should have male goalkeepers. He was joking, but I am serious.
If the women’s game is to progress they need men in goal. If you’re thinking this is the start of some sort of chauvinistic rant you’re wrong, and you obviously didn’t read my column last week.

Flap: England goalkeeper Karen Bardsley concedes an own goal, condemning her team to defeat against Spain at the Women's European Championships

How demotivating and disheartening it must have been for England’s women to work so hard on Friday night only to lose when their keeper came flying off her line, completely flapped and missed, and scored an own goal with her face.
The following day I watched Robert Green nearly keep a clean sheet in a pre-season friendly and was reminded how men make mistakes with the gloves as well. I don’t think I will ever forget the horror of watching him spoon a trundler from Clint Dempsey into the net at the 2010 World Cup to rob England of a deserved victory.

Explain that: Bardsley's error sent England to a 3-2 defeat

But I watch women’s football when it’s on and the goalkeeping is shocking, I don’t even think Germaine Greer would disagree.
For the game to develop and be taken seriously more time is needed to allow keepers to get better. They need taking out of the firing line for a period of intensive coaching to get them up to speed with the outfield players whose game has improved immensely over the past 10-15 years.
In the meantime stick the men in goal.