5 things that could have happened if Steven Gerrard had joined Chelsea

What is Steven Gerrard had joined Chelsea in 2005?

“I wouldn’t change my journey for anything,” asserts a nostalgic Steven Gerrard of 17 years of Kop service, before his final home game against Crystal Palace. An opportunistic Gerrard of 7 years of Kop service though seemed to think differently, clamouring for a move to Chelsea - the nouveau riche.

Time’s a funny thing, it is. From receiving death threats and having posters ripped to shreds and burnt to ashes by glowering fans in 2005, to being the reason behind a 2800% rise in ticket prices at Anfield in 2015, Gerrard has seen it all, lived it all.

From central midfield to right wing to box-to-box to the hole, Gerrard has played it all. As the curtains to his illustrious career draw to a close, all this leaves us pondering, wondering ‘what if?’.

What if Gerrard’s father Paul hadn’t convinced him to stay at Merseyside? What if Mourinho’s machinations had borne fruit? What if Gerrard had betrayed Liverpool? What if Gerrard had turned blue? So, what if Steven Gerrard really had managed to force his move to Chelsea? Hypothetically, what would the ramifications have been?

Big fish, massive ocean

Survival of the fittest is what drives the machine that Chelsea is

The Liverpool midfield certainly was no ‘pond’ as the analogy dictates, but it was far from an ‘ocean’. While there did exist healthy competition for places between Danny Murphy, Didi Hamann and Igor Biscan, none ever endangered the place of Gerrard, who by then ascended the role of captain. It was almost as if the team was beginning to be built around him, like he was the cornerstone of that Liverpool side.

The Chelsea midfield in contrast was one that typified cutthroat competition. The Blues already boasted the likes of Makelele and Lampard (who was the cornerstone of that Chelsea side, much like Gerrard was to Liverpool), and each year, made a pricey addition there.

Tens of millions were squandered on Veron in 2003, Scott Parker and Tiago in 2004 - all three of whom could not make the cut - while similarly large sums spent on Essien in 2005 (who arrived because Gerrard didn’t), and Michael Ballack in 2006 paid off. No player could walk into such a midfield, not even Liverpool’s captain. Chelsea’s midfield was like the Pacific, and Frank Lampard was the great white shark.

So, if Gerrard had moved to Chelsea in 2004 - when the saga began, or in 2005 - when he was on the brink of doing so, would he have been content fighting for a place in the midfield, just like the rest? Would he have been able to take being treated like a commoner, after becoming the aristocracy?

More importantly, would Gerrard have been able to become the player he is today, to sustain that which he had achieved, for another ten years, in an alien, potentially hostile setting?

Knowing Gerrard, he may well have become the killer whale in Chelsea. Knowing Chelsea (read; Veron, Torres, Shevchenko), he may well have become krill. Well, we’ll never know. I’m not even sure if we want to find out.

The Torres-Gerrard affair

Would we have seen this?

It is said that the universe has bizarre, yet sure ways of making things which are destined to happen, even if they seem unlikely, or impossible. If Gerrard had moved to Chelsea in 2005, Fernando Torres may have become ‘the one that got away’ from Gerrard.

We may have been deprived of some of the Premier League’s most beautiful spectacles of attacking play, camaraderie and bromance between the two. Fernando Torres may not have been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, or become the fastest Liverpool player to score 50 goals, or even be the subject of a £50-million-pound bid. All this if he had moved to Liverpool in 2007 like he did. Let’s delve a little deeper though.

When Torres made his sensational switch to Anfield in 2007, he cited Liverpool being “England’s best, and one of Europe’s best” as his main reason for joining the Reds. And Liverpool were, verily, a ferocious side at the time, having won the Champions League and finished as runners-up in 2005 and 2007 respectively (although they hadn’t won the Premier League since 1990).

Most, if not all of that credit must go to their captain - Steven Gerrard - who finished as top scorer in two of those seasons, besides contributing in several other ways. So, take Gerrard out of the mix and what were Liverpool left with? Sure, they had an excellent side, but leader-less. Gerrard was their primus inter pares.

What then? Would Torres have remained at Atletico, leading them on to greater heights? Or would he have made a move anyway? After all, Atletico were struggling to attain a top-half finish, and here was a player with the world at his feet; all he needed was the means of making it happen. Next best option? Chelsea.

Considering Chelsea’s unrelenting pursuit of Fernando Torres began way back in 2003, many even expected Chelsea to win Torres’s signature. What tipped it in Liverpool’s favour was surely Steven Gerrard and his impact on their performance in Europe, apart from the presence of Rafael Benitez. With Gerrard at Chelsea and a Liverpool devoid of Gerrard, well, you can do the math.

This brings us to an even more intriguing ‘what if’ than the previous one. What if Torres had in fact moved to Chelsea in 2007? Would Torres’s stay at Chelsea still have been as monumental a failure as it turned out to be? Would the Torres-Gerrard bromance still have happened?

Sure, they’d have been united, but circumstances at Chelsea (who already had quite an arsenal in midfield and attack) were extremely different from those at Liverpool. Would Torres - who Blues fans have progressed from despising to pitying- have emerged as another Didier Drogba? What would have become of his potential partnership with a younger Didier Drogba?

Well, the only near-certainty (and that’s the best you can get when you’re being hypothetical) is that Torres would not have gotten away from Gerrard, even if he had traded red for blue. The universe would have provided for it. Because some things cannot be wiped out; they’re indelible.

The Miracle of Istanbul may never have happened

Impossible is nothing – Steven Gerrard willed his team to a memorable win

European football as we know it today wouldn’t have been the same if it wasn’t for that comeback from Liverpool that night against AC Milan in the Champions League. Steven Gerrard wouldn’t have been the same Steven Gerrard no matter what he would have gone on to achieve at Chelsea if he hadn’t been there to lead Liverpool to that historic turnaround.

Six minutes were all he needed to rewrite history. But you’re probably wondering how Steven Gerrard’s departure could have affected that Champions League final since he was slated to leave well after all that.

While the real magnitude of the Gerrard-Chelsea rumours was felt only in the summer of 2005, the tremors began in 2004, once Gerrard realized Abramovich’s and Mourinho’s potential. In fact, he would’ve left too if it hadn’t been for his father’s imploring. So we finally know who the real hero of that night in Istanbul is - Paul Gerrard.

That game served as a watershed moment not only for football, but even for sport, and maybe an even broader field like life, for, it taught us that impossible is nothing. Maybe that explains Gerrard’s subsequent tie-up with Adidas.

John Terry may have saved face

John Terry wasn’t scheduled to take the final penalty in the Champions League final

“He wasn’t supposed to be in the first five. John stepped up when he wasn’t supposed to,” lamented a conciliatory Chelsea assistant manager following a deplorably unfortunate penalty shootout at Moscow. John Terry had slipped as he pulled the trigger, his shot managing to pick the right post, alas, with Van der Sar lunging left.

The Blues’ skipper- who had turned in a remarkable performance hitherto to see his team to the brink - came despairingly, painfully close, but in the end, he - and his untimely slip - cost his team a maiden Champions League.

While Chelsea went on to win the Champions League four seasons later, Terry (who played no part in the final) never quite managed to wipe that blemish off his otherwise stellar and speckless Chelsea career. He even admitted seven years on, that that miss still gives him nightmares.

Yet, he could have been saved the misery. John Terry was not Chelsea’s designated number-five penalty taker, but Didier Drogba’s late sending-off disrupted the order. Sending-off or no sending-off, had Gerrard been a part of that Chelsea side, he would, in all likeliness, have taken that penalty. He may well have even buried it.

Regardless, Terry would not have had to step up, Terry would not have had to slip. Even if they did lose that final, it wouldn’t be on him. The burden would’ve been somebody else’s.

While it may be argued that Gerrard’s moving to Chelsea would probably have changed things at the very root; they may not have been in the Champions League final. The course of the game would’ve been entirely different. Butterfly-effect hypothesising aside, John Terry would not be waking up every now and then moaning, regretting and crying.

Gerrard may have won a Premier League title

Gerrard has, time and again stated that he regrets not winning the Premier League title. That wish of his would have been granted if Gerrard had made the switch to Chelsea ten years ago. In fact, it would have been immediate; Chelsea won the 2005-06 title, the very season Gerrard was touted to join the Pensioners.

It would even have completed his collection, for he had won the Champions League in 2004-05, the FA Cup in 2001, the League Cup in 2001 and 2003, the UEFA Cup in 2001, and the UEFA Super Cup in 2003.

‘The icing on the cake’ as Gerrard calls it, would have been laid way back in 2006 when Gerrard was barely 26. He may have had another layer and another layer, hell, he may have even had several other cakes - all with different icings - had he made the switch, for Chelsea have won 12 trophies since (including three Premier League titles and one Champions League), while Liverpool have only a single League Cup to show for all their struggles.

However, he didn't make that switch, and will end his career without the holy grail, a Premier League medal.

Conclusion

In Gerrard's words, his one greatest regret is that “He never led Liverpool to a Premier League title.” Yet, he led them to the very brink, so excruciatingly close that the Kop could almost taste the cup. And then he slipped, Liverpool slipped.

Had Gerrard made the fateful move a decade ago, his wish of winning the Premier League would have been fulfilled, at least in part, and he would have won the Premier League title, albeit without Liverpool.

In a more utopian world, another man may have stepped in, in place of Gerrard, a man certainly not with a larger heart, but perhaps with more grip in his studs. A man who may not have made half-as-good a leader, but who would not slip.

Perhaps then, Liverpool would have won their maiden Premier League. Gerrard's wish of Liverpool winning the Premier League would have been fulfilled, at least in part, and Liverpool would have revelled in their Premier League success, albeit without Gerrard.

Gerrard, for all his fascination with cake analogies, should know better than anyone that you can't have your cake and eat it too. Icing or no icing.