Gerrard: I’m blessed

Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard has talked of his pride in wearing the Red shirt and of the time he almost quit the club — but insists he is still “living the dream” at Anfield.

Gerrard appeared with Ryan Tubridy on RTÉ’s Late Late Show last night and talked with genuine excitement of his life with his boyhood club.

Ahead of this evening’s Premier League clash with Norwich at Carrow Road, he said: “Every night, every day [I dreamed of playing for Liverpool]... when I put me pyjamas on at night I would watch Liverpool videos and dreaming of one day of getting there.”

It was a dream that soon came true for the Merseyside-born England international.

“[My heroes are] John Aldridge, John Barnes, Jamie Redknapp, Robbie Fowler, Peter Beardsley guys who in the end I was lucky enough to play with. I’m living the dream still today. I’m the captain of my local team and every day I’m blessed”

Recalling his debut as a last-minute substitute against Blackburn in 1998, he said: “It blew me away to be honest making me debut, I was on the bench not really thinking I was coming on... I was very, very nervous.

“At the time I was doubting myself, I was negative, I didn’t think I could do it.

“[There is]... a fear of letting your teammates down and your heroes down and also performing in front of the people — the most important people in the club — the Liverpool supporters.”

Tubridy also touched on Hillsborough and what effect that has had on the club and the player.

Gerrard said: “[There’s] still a huge shadow over the club and there always will be, until we do finally get the justice that we all want.

“I go to the service year in year out, I was there a couple of weeks ago and there’s still the same hurt and the same pain, all these years on and it will always be there because we lost 96 very important people.”

Tubridy asked: “You talk about justice, what do you mean?”

“Well I think it’s in the media a lot and we basically, as Liverpool fans, we want the truth, what really went on and why that tragedy happened.”

“You don’t think that has been fully come out yet?” asked Tubridy.

“No”.

Gerrard also recalled his greatest triumph, beating AC Milan on penalties in Istanbul in 2005 to lift the Champions League.

“I never get bored speaking about it,” he said, “Istanbul and winning the Champions league... how long have you got?”

“It was a huge fulfilment, all the hard work, all the sweat, the blood, the tears, the emotions I’ve been through since I was eight years of age when I first started with Liverpool, that’s what it’s all about, moments like that.”

The subject of leaving Liverpool also cropped up.

On being linked with a move to Chelsea, Gerrard confided: “It’s a difficult question really, I’m a winner, I love playing football, I love Liverpool football club. I’ve always been honest and said there have been times when Liverpool weren’t doing so well and there were times when a little bit of insecurity crept into me and I thought maybe the club wanted to make money on me.

“That’s when my head was turned by other clubs around Europe who were interested in me.”

Meanwhile, Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish says he would be happy just to see some league victories before the end of the season — irrespective of how his side play.

Having dominated throughout and created numerous chances in last weekend’s home defeat by West Brom the Scot will gladly swap style for substance over the coming weeks.

There is a danger the Reds could go into next weekend’s FA Cup final against Chelsea with a lack of confidence and momentum with more frustrating performances like the one against the Baggies.

And while Dalglish does not intend to abandon his principles he would welcome a few more points to avoid the club’s worst league finish for 58 years — when they were relegated.

“We want to win games but it would be nice if we were rubbish and won a game,” said the Reds boss, who insists finishing above near neighbours Everton, two points ahead, should not be the primary motivating factor for his players.

“Our incentive is to get as much as we can from every game that we play.

“We want to finish with as many wins and points as we possibly can and the incentive we have is just representing the football club as much as anything else.

“We have always set ourselves high standards in terms of the level of performance and there are not too many times when we’ve let ourselves down on that front.

“But winning is what it is all about and points on the board is what it is all about.”