Steven Gerrard says he was ready to walk away from Liverpool just six weeks after the 2005 Champions League final. He announced he was leaving, then changed his mind overnight. In the BBC feature, he says his head was “like a box of frogs” and that he felt Rafael Benitez did not rate him, trust him or want him.
Why the near-exit matters more than the comeback
The comeback in Istanbul is still the headline act. Liverpool came from 3-0 down at half-time to win the 2005 Champions League final on penalties, one of those nights that gets replayed endlessly for good reason.
But this feature is more revealing about what followed. Gerrard’s version of events is blunt, and it is not just nostalgia dressing. He says Benitez made him feel doubted and unwelcome during that period, which is why the idea of leaving got as far as an actual announcement.
Jamie Carragher adds the same kind of picture from inside the dressing room. He says “Rafa Benitez was never going to do that”, meaning the arm-round-the-shoulder reassurance Gerrard wanted. Benitez, for his part, has always defended the colder side of his methods, saying: “Football requires more than that. If you're really emotional, you don't find the way to success.”
Benitez's detail worked, even if the mood did not
There is a reason the argument around Benitez is not simple. Gerrard later said, “I look back at Rafa and think he's the best coach I have worked with”, which tells you the relationship did not stay frozen in 2005 terms.
The feature also shows why players could find him hard to read. Michael Owen says Benitez told him he needed to learn to turn on the ball quicker, while Carragher describes training sessions with “no ball and there'd just be cones all around the pitch”. Jerzy Dudek offers the sharpest example of the detail: Benitez divided the goal into six squares and told the players, “Andriy Shevchenko likes one and four.”
That level of preparation helped Liverpool in the final, where Dudek saved two penalties, including the decisive one from Andriy Shevchenko. The emotional distance clearly bothered senior players, but the methods were not empty theatre. They were part of how Liverpool won in 2005.
The broader takeaway is fairly plain. Gerrard’s near-exit was real, and the sources do not support turning it into a tidy story of Benitez driving him out. What they do support is a manager whose style produced elite results and real friction at the same time. That tension sits at the centre of the BBC feature, and it is why the story is bigger than a simple reunion with Istanbul.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
