Huge congratulations to Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard who receive the PFA Merit Award! #PFAawards pic.twitter.com/l4g7hNf0H5
— Professional Footballers' Association (@PFA) April 26, 2015
Eden Hazard and Harry Kane were the big winners last night collecting the PFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year respectively. But, as tends to happen at these things, there were other awards to give out just to keep the evening ticking over.
Included among those was a special recognition of two of the Premier League's best. With Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard both departing for the more accommodating climes of the MLS this summer, it seems only fair that both players were awarded the PFA Merit Award.
Given that Lampard's goodbye has been quite a bit longer than Gerrard's, much of the attention was on the Liverpool captain. After collecting his award Gerrard made a speech in which he said that although he will be departing Anfield as a player next month, he very much has it in his mind to return in some other capacity in the future.
Gerrard on move to LA "then hopefully I will come back and get a job at Liverpool" #lfc #PFAawards
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) April 26, 2015
You can already feel the pressure on whomever is managing Liverpool five years down the line. A poor run of form will automatically see people calling for the return of the prodigal son.
Gerrard also went on to state what it meant for him to represent Liverpool for the best part of two decades.
It has been a privilege to represent Liverpool for so long and to share some of the highlights of my career.
For sure I'm going to miss Liverpool, the league and the country - I will miss everything about it, it is going to be an emotional few weeks, but I go with my head held high and I'm not going to hang my boots up yet - I've got a couple of years left in me.
If Jurgen Klopp doesn't take his job, Brendan Rodgers might have to start looking over his shoulder for Gerrard soon enough.
