Some Gernando Love - Seems appropriate, no?
As times are just getting worse for us this season, no matter how hard we try or how well we play, I figured some happy Gernando-love would probably make the pain of this season fade for just a moment and give us a reason to smile again, if only for a second.
So I’ve taken a moment to find my favourite Gernando-parts of Fernando’s book, ‘El Niño - My Story” and Stevie’s ‘My Captain’s Book’. Hopefully this can put a smile on your faces as, if only for a second, like it did on mine after the painful exit of the Europa League last night.<3
From ‘Torres - El Niño: My story’:
“I had heard the names that are most associated with Liverpool: Dalgish, Rush, Souness, Keegan, Owen, Fowler, McManaman, Hamann … As someone who has always followed those players who come through the ranks at their club, I was especially interested in a young lad from the youth team called Steven Gerrard.”
-Of course your little obsession with our Captain started before you even came to the club, Nando… <3
“Welcome to Liverpool FC. I’m looking forward to meeting you and training together. Good luck and hopefully we can be successful together.”
-Awww, the first text message Stevie sent Fernando the day he arrived in Liverpool for the first time. And look, Stevie got what he hoped for as well! If I’m not wrong, he said somewhere else in the book that his mobile still contained that text…? Hmmm…
“I admire Steven Gerrard because I know how much pressure he has to live with every day. Everyone’s talking about him all the time - in the dressing room, in the bars, in the stadium. From my own experience, I know how difficult it is to keep everyone happy, but the pressure he’s under is on a different level to anything I ever had to live with because Liverpool is such a huge club.
When you’re captain, you know everyone is talking about you. You can feel it, especially when things go badly. Everything that Gerrard has to face every single day, and the expectations that surrounds him, make the way he handles the pressure even more impressive. He is always under the microscope and people always expect him to be the leader, to lift the team all on his own. He is an example to everyone who ever finds themselves in that situation. It’s incredible what he has to put up with and how much there is going on around him every single day.
I would love to be a captain somewhere some day because I think I’ve had the best possible role model in Steven Gerrard. At Liverpool, he is irreplaceable. Every big club has a standard bearer, a home-grown talent, someone with a lifelong commitment to the cause. People come and go but he’s always there. It’s him and ten others. He’s everything to this side. That’s Steven Gerrard at Liverpool. I can’t even begin to imagine the place without him.
He’s got it all as a footballer too: personality, consistency, stature, control, power, strength, aggression, intensity, he never goes missing … he can play everywhere and he can play in every way. Wherever you put him, he performs. He scores goals, works hard, he’s quick, he’s tireless. He’s a born leader and the most consistent player in the world. The only thing missing from his CV is the Premier League title and an international award like the Ballon d’Or or the FIFA World Player and I’m sure he’ll win one of those soon. There’s no doubt he deserves to. Any coach would want him on their side. It’s hard for people to judge just how good he is because he’s still playing, but one day he’ll be recognised as one of the greatest players in the club’s history. And, don’t forget, he’s Liverpool through and through too: a local lad who came up through the ranks.
That fact makes his achievements all the more impressive to me.
Steven doesn’t need to scream and shout on the pitch to be a leader. He leads by example, by the way he plays - the way he’s had bred into him for years. He is without a doubt the greatest player I have ever played with. He has everything.
A year after arriving, my mobile still contains two messages that arrived on my first day at Liverpool. The warmest welcomes from Steven and Carra.”
-Nando, dude, you could’ve just written a chapter just about Stevie. You weren’t exactly far from doing so with this one.
From the chapter about him being nominated for getting the 2008 FIFA World Player Award:
“But the truth is I don’t know what to think. I don’t know whether I should agree with Kelly Smith who, when Ronaldo was proclaimed the winner, whispered in my ear: ‘Relax, next year it will be you.’ Or whether I should stick by my own initial reaction when I saw the photograph of the nominees and thought to myself: ‘Bloody hell, where’s Steven Gerrard?’”
-Awwwwww!<3
From ‘Steven Gerrard - My Captain’s Book’:
Kenny Dalgish on Stevie and Torres:
“The combination of Torres and Gerrard on top form is a match for anything in Europe. The way Steven crafts a pass for Fernando is special and, like all good partners, Torres returns the favour. Their understanding is getting on to the telepathic and it’s going to be fascinating watching them over the next few seasons.
Torres will learn a lot from playing alongside Stevie.”
-Even King Kenny sees it, guys.
Stevie in his chapter ‘His Armband Proved He Was A Red…’ Yes, he wrote a short chapter about Nando in that book:
“Kenny talked about the way I’ve linked up with Fernando and I have to say that he’s really added something special to the club. He was a young captain at Atletico Madrid and he’s come to Anfield and led our forward line with style. His armband proved he was a Red - and we’re happy he’s one of us.
I wouldn’t swap him for any striker playing anywhere at the moment. He’s been massive for us and gives us so many different things up front.
Obviously because he’s a goalscorer that’s where he’s going to be judged. He’s banging them in and always look a threat every time you play him.
You can play him on his own or with a partner and he just adapts perfectly.
He’s made life tough for foreign boys who come over to England. When you look at the impact he’s made in two seasons here it means no-one can make excuses about taking time to settle.
I actually think England suits him even better than Spain. He suits the constant flow and rough and tumble of the Premier League better than the stop-start technical La Liga.
He’s just a kid really in football terms and he’s going to get better and better. That’s a frightening thought, not for us but for the defences that are going to come up against him for the next five years - hopefully longer.”
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I have no idea if some of you have read either both or one of these books or none. I just thought it fitted in here pretty well and it made me smile after exiting the Europa League last night, so I kinda hoped it could put a smile on your faces as well.
Gernando. It's love, no?
YNWA<3