So Gerrard's not a 'top, top player'? Well why did you try to sign him, Fergie?

Go back to Sunday, December 17, 2000. Gerard Houllier was taking his emerging Liverpool side to Old Trafford and Sir Alex Ferguson had pinpointed a player who threatened Manchester United’s ambitions.
‘He is physically and technically precocious,’ said Ferguson. ‘He’s got a good engine and remarkable energy. He reads the game and he passes quickly. I would hate to think Liverpool have someone as good as Roy Keane.’
Head to May 2004. The European Championship in Portugal was looming and Ferguson had given an interview to the Sunday Times, in which he revealed profound admiration for a midfielder from whom he expected big things.

Icon: Steven Gerrard has scored 100 Premier League goals from the Liverpool midfield

Killer instinct: Gerrard nets against Manchester United at Liverpool back in 2001

‘He has become the most influential player in England, bar none,’ Ferguson enthused. ‘More than Vieira. Not that Vieira lacks anything, but I think he does more for his team than Vieira does and has way more to his game. I’ve watched him quite a lot. Anyone would love to have him in their team.’
The subject of both eulogies was Steven Gerrard, whom Ferguson has now chosen to describe in his memoirs as not being ‘a top, top player’. So why the U-turn? What is the agenda behind this logic-defying soundbite?
Ferguson, after all, described Gerrard as being the man ‘he would want to replace Keane’. At Euro 2004, a Manchester United player who was part of the England squad knocked on Gerrard’s door at the team hotel and said: ‘We’d love you to come to United’.
Had Gerrard failed to win anything in the intervening years and made only sporadic appearances for England, maybe there could have been some sense to  Ferguson’s words. But Liverpool’s captain has matured into a first-class professional and dedicated family man — everything Ferguson looks for in a player.

Back of the net: Gerrard converted his 20th Premier League penalty against Newcastle

Boy wonder: A young Gerrard tries to wrestle the ball from Leeds' Harry Kewell

Perhaps, when the end arrives, he will not have the honours his talents deserves but his cabinet will hardly be bare.
How many players would swap the wealth they  accumulated for a haul of one Champions League, one UEFA Cup, two FA Cups, three League Cups and 107 England caps?
How many would want to be able to cite the fact they created history by becoming the first man to score in the finals of the UEFA Cup, League Cup, Champions League and FA Cup?
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said: ‘The big players score the big goals and make the big contributions in the big games. That is what determines a great player — and that’s what Steven Gerrard is.’
Maybe Ferguson believes Gerrard is not ‘a top, top player’ because he hasn’t won the Premier League and has not played in the Champions League since 2009? If so, he will be in a minority of one.
In June 2010, Marca, the influential Spanish newspaper, published a front page with a picture of Gerrard mocked up in a Real Madrid kit alongside the words Caliente! Caliente! Caliente! (Hot! Hot! Hot!). He was their prime target when Jose Mourinho became manager.

Cheeky: Sir Alex Ferguson claimed Gerrard was not a 'top,top player' in his new autobiography

In the aftermath of Euro 2012, Bayern Munich wanted to sign him. All the top clubs have wanted  Gerrard at some point — especially United.
‘Playing for Manchester United would have been impossible,’ Gerrard told Sportsmail in September 2012. ‘Don’t get me wrong. It is flattering that after everything he has done in the game, Sir Alex wanted me to play in his team. I never would have wanted to play for Manchester United.’
And those last words might just be the reason why Ferguson comes across as being jilted. Knocking Liverpool ‘off their ******* perch’ was one thing, taking their on-field emblem would have been  something else.

One-club man: Gerrard has stayed true to his word that he would be Liverpool for life

Great debate: Paul Scholes (right) and Roy Keane were better players than Gerrard, claims Sir Alex Ferguson

Ever present: Ryan Giggs (right) has outlasted Scholes and Keane and has more assists and goals than Gerrard

That has to be the agenda — envy, plain and simple. Ferguson, who once signed those midfield ‘giants’ Eric Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson, tended to get what he wanted in the transfer window, as the successful pursuit of Robin van Persie proved.
Gerrard, however was always the one that remained out of reach.
To say he never got a kick against Paul Scholes and Keane is risible, as evidence abounds to prove  otherwise, such as a thumping goal in the League Cup final of 2003 and winning assists at Old Trafford in January 2002 and April 2004.
But to say Gerrard is not ‘a top, top player’? If he isn’t, who is? 

Ferguson said there was some relief in the dressing room once Keane left the club, but from the outside he always looked like their most important player. I thought Patrick Vieira was better but it was always a ferocious battle when they met.
Keane started and finished his career in the years of the midfield enforcer but there has been a shift in perception over the past few years, which is partly why Scholes is so celebrated.
With teams such as Barcelona and Spain proving so successful, Scholes’ technical abilities are more widely appreciated.
For three quite different players, they had one thing in common:  they were all winners. None of them respected reputation, not even when they were breaking into the game. They did not care who they were playing against, they always played to win.

He gets my vote: Jamie Carragher said Gerrard was the best English midfielder in the Premier League