Steven Gerrard sets sights on Liverpool homecoming

Steven Gerrard: Linked with Celtic move

Steven Gerrard: Linked with Celtic move

Steven Gerrard is set to hang up his boots later this year and is planning a return to Liverpool in a coaching capacity.

The former Liverpool captain, who has recently spent some time training with his old club and experiencing Jurgen Klopp’s training methods, has admitted that this year could be his final year as a player.

Gerrard, 35, announced he was leaving Liverpool last January and penned an 18-month deal with the LA Galaxy, but with that contract set to expire at the end of 2016 Gerrard is open to offers.

“I’m not 100% sure but I think it will probably be my last year as a player,” Gerrard told the Daily Telegraph.

“I have had a chat with Klopp. I haven’t had an offer as such, but the club have let me know they are keen for me to come back but there hasn’t been a conversation where they have said: ‘We want you to do this, we want you to do that’.

“They have welcomed me back in. I am always going to be biased towards Liverpool and the FA and basically when I am back home I am going to carry on with my punditry work and try and move around clubs and gain more experience, going to watch managers and learning more.

“I am basically available from November, December 2016. Everyone in the football world will know I am available and hopefully I will be 75 per cent into my coaching badges.”

Gerrard said he regretted not beginning work towards his badges earlier in his playing career, and said he had urged the Football Association to do more to engage its most experienced players in order to keep them in the game.

“I have regrets I didn’t start my coaching badges at 21-22,” he said. “All that time wasted in hotels as an England player when I’ve been bored and was watching ‘The Office’ and ‘The Sopranos’.

“I wish I’d done my CBA (coaching) licence then so I’d be doing my pro-licence now. I know many players get to the end of their careers, get handed a thick C licence pack and say, ‘Nah, I’m not doing that.’ That’s 70/80 caps and 600 career appearances and he is just going nah. He could have had it done.

“I had a meeting with the FA and said these players that are earning a certain amount of caps – don’t let them go away from the game, do more to keep them involved.”