“Giggsy 12, Gerrard 0,” our fans have taken to singing recently, pointing out the massive gulf in quality between our living legend and theirs. Liverpool haven’t won the league since 1990 meaning that Steven Gerrard doesn’t have a Premier League winners medal. In contrast, Giggs has so many he loses them and stumbles across them when cleaning out his drawers.

A week after handing in his transfer request to Liverpool, wanting out for a move to Chelsea, Gerrard started the “this is our year” talk.

“Hopefully I can go on and win that medal that I’m craving for, which is the Premiership, because that’s the one I’m missing,” he said in July 2005. “Hopefully it will be this year, but if not it will happen in the four years that I’ve signed for.”

“We are looking forward to the new season, it is exciting times for Liverpool,” he said in July 2006. “We are coming back to Liverpool on the back of the FA Cup win and hopefully we can deliver the Premiership title.”

“We wanted the league flag flying back at Anfield and felt we were in a good position to have a real go,” he said in May 2007. “The league is always your bread and butter as a Liverpool player and we are not far away.”

“We can’t keep talking about next season all the time,” he said in February 2008. “There is only so many times you can say it and believe it. Sooner or later we have to make one season the season where we make it happen and do the talking on the pitch. We need to make people believe it. I’m 27 now, I don’t want to be talking about next season for Liverpool when I’m 32.”

“We’ve learned a lot and I think next year could be our year – I’m really confident about that,” he said in May 2009.

And so on, and so on. If he wasn’t such a prick, maybe you’d feel sorry for him. That’s what a journo thought, after Sir Alex Ferguson talked about what a great player Gerrard was. Is it a pity that a player of his quality has never won the league?

“I don’t think it’s a pity. You’re joking! Bloody hell. Oh yes. I’ve been dreaming about it.”