#ThanksStevie

While the tears from Saturday have almost dried and the thought of seeing Stevie wear the famous red of Liverpool at Anfield are all but memories now, one can't help but wonder how different life at Liverpool Football Club will be without him. Already the silly season shenanigans have begun with Sterling and his manager causing a media frenzy at the moment but this post isn't about that, it's about Stevie. 

The farewell given to him was nothing short of extraordinary, I've never seen anything like that before in all my years watching the English Premier League. From the short ceremony that was held before the match against Crystal Palace, with the guard of honor formed by both teams to welcome Gerrard onto the pitch for the last time at a ground that was his second home. High fiving the Palace team as he walked out with his 3 daughters was a nice moment and to hear the entire ground in full voice for You'll Never Walk Alone and thereafter singing his song sent a tingling feeling throughout your body. 

The game started off well for LFC and Adam Lallana opened the scoring with a breakaway goal coming of an error by former red Martin Kelly, could have been a late present by the defender for all we know but from there on, it was down hill for the Reds. as Palace struck back to equalise just before half time and there after add 2 more goals to our misery. The team lacked focus and desire, I felt bad it being Gerrard's last home game and it had to be a defeat, for all those years he dug deep to rescue the team, just this one time they couldn't do the same for him. 

In any case, Liverpool went on to lose the game 3-1 but as the final whistle blew it was time for Anfield to say goodbye to its favourite son. Yes, there was Highway, Dalglish, Rush, Barnes and so on but no one can deny that the best from them all was Stevie. In fact the heroes of yesteryear tend to agree with that as well, as Gerrard said once, "I was made for Liverpool and Liverpool was made for me", it was always a perfect fit and his 17 year career bared testament to it. So much so that for the first time ever, no one in the stadium cared about the result of the game that just ended. There was even a banner that read "There best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be".

It's no secret that Liverpool FC conduct themselves in a certain fashion, "the Liverpool way" they call it. One of the main things is there is no player bigger than the club and while I am a firm believer of it, on Saturday things changed. There was someone bigger than the club and as much as he would deny it, Stevie was held in higher regards than the dropped 3 points, people were celebrating as if we had won, but in reality they were celebrating the career of one of the greatest football players of all time. That for me showed respect to a man that gave his all to make the people who support this great club happy. As a mark of respect, every team member came out wearing the new kit with Gerrard on the back which was a nice touch. A gitting tribute to a legend of the game.

Thank you Steven Gerrard, Thank Oh you beauty, Thanks for the memories, till we meet again, You'll Never Walk Alone.