Gerrard’s contract a booster for ’Pool

STEVEN GERRARD has finally signed a new contract at Liverpool which will keep him at Anfield until the summer of 2007.

The England midfielder insists Liverpool can provide him with all the silverware he will need in his career, despite suggestions that he and Michael Owen may have to leave Anfield to be really successful.

"I feel as if we have the nucleus of a great team here and I want to stay a part of it. I am glad the club want me to stay a part of it as well.

"I hope getting the contract sorted out and becoming captain will give me the boost to go on and improve as a player," said Gerrard.

Gerrard had 18 months of his current deal left, so the new £60,000-a-week contract effectively adds just another two years.

He will be 27 when the new contract expires and will, by then, be expecting Liverpool to be challenging for, if not winning, the championship on a regular basis.

But for now Liverpool and their new club captain are delighted the wrangling is over and that an end has been put to speculation suggesting he was a target for Chelsea.

"I am over the moon to sign. I have always wanted to stay. I have been here since I was eight years old, and there has never been a single moment when I have wanted to move on and play for someone else," said Gerrard.

Gerrard's decision is also a vote of confidence for Gerard Houllier.

"As a man and as a manager I have a lot of respect for him," he said.

"I enjoy playing for him. At the end of the day, though, the main thing was me wanting to be here. This is a club I have supported since I was a young boy and I do not want to leave."

"If there was any doubt in my mind that the club wasn't going in the right direction then I am sure there would have been a problem over me signing.

"We have a terrific squad of players here, and I think we are getting closer to being more successful," he added on Liverpool's website.

The fifth anniversary of Houllier's takeover falls at just the wrong time with Liverpool 13 points off the top and unlikely to end their grim run without a title.

Home defeats at the hands of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal already this season underline the gap Houllier still has to bridge to end a 14-year title famine.

The Frenchman could yet rue his 'judge me in five years' claim, made when he took over from Roy Evans.

But the Frenchman has been quick to insist that for his first 12 months in control it was not his team, but that of a variety of predecessors.

Houllier believes his five-year time span should be judged from the summer of 1999 when he started rebuilding in earnest.

That summer Houllier dumped the Spice Boys image, getting rid of Paul Ince, Jason McAteer and David James while allowing Steve McManaman to walk away for nothing to Real Madrid. In came Dietmar Hamann, Sander Westerveld, Sami Hypia and Stephane Henchoz.

"In summer 1999 I said I would need a minimum of five years to win the league," Houllier explained.

His critics are quick to forget the mediocre mess Liverpool were in when he took over, and how a root and branch transformation saw more than £100million spent but £50million recouped in transfer fees.

That Houllier is still talking of progress and rebuilding, and with more than 18 months of his contract to run, implies he has no intention of walking away from an increasingly difficult task as the trophy flood of the 2000-01 season slows to a trickle.