I wanted to stay at Liverpool, says Steven Gerrard

LONDON

Steven Gerrard would have stayed at Liverpool if he had been offered a new contract during the close season, he said in a British newspaper interview published on Wednesday.

Gerrard, 34, announced last Friday that he will leave Anfield at the end of the season, ending a 25-year association with the club that has seen him make 696 appearances and score 182 goals.

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He turned down a new contract in November, but he says that had the offer been made earlier, he would have extended his commitment to the club beyond the end of the current campaign.

"If a contract had been put in front of me in pre-season, I would have signed it," he told regional newspaper the Liverpool Echo.

"I'd just retired from England to concentrate all my efforts on Liverpool. I didn't want my club games to be tailored.

"My injury record had been fantastic for the past two and a half years and I had a great season from a personal point of view last season.

"It's all ifs, buts and hindsight now. That period between the summer and the end of November gave me thinking time.

"There's no blame and I'm not angry about it. There are other people in the squad and the club had other things to worry about. There is no finger-pointing from me towards the manager or anyone else at the club."

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Gerrard is expected to announce that he will join Major League Soccer club the Los Angeles Galaxy, following reports he has agreed an 18-month deal worth around £6 million ($9.1 million, 7.6 million euros).