One lingering complaint about Liverpool's last transfer window was the failure to secure a "marquee" signing. The definition of "marquee" signing changes from person to person, but for those left unimpressed by the new recruits there's often an underlying wish that Liverpool had just gone all out and spent a huge chunk of cash on a big name, fiscal responsibility be damned.
It's a strategy that chronically underachieving MLS side Toronto FC tried this past season. The club allegedly spent $100m (£55m) in transfer fees and salaries to bring Harry Redknapp favourite Jermain Defoe and American all star Michael Bradley to Toronto as a major statement of intent from club leadership. As they've done every year in their existence, TFC failed to make the playoffs, and with injury and discontentment plaguing the Defoe camp, the club are allegedly looking to replace him with another big English name.
Steven Gerrard big.
SOURCES: #TFC to approach Wesley Sneijder and Steven Gerrard as DP targets-- http://t.co/CFnXyqOlZY #MLS
— Duane Rollins (@24thminute) November 6, 2014
LOL, eh? The Canadian soccer press is tiny and Rollins is decently well placed and not prone to posting rumours, so the probability that TFC are actually considering this is probably quite high. It fits the club's hubris and bandaid solution ambitions perfectly, and the marketing job they'd do should they land Gerrard's signature would dwarf anything they ever did with Defoe and Bradley.
But TFC's hilarious intention to go after Gerrard is purely about TFC and has approximately zero to do with Liverpool. After Gerrard chose to speak to the press rather than his club on a future that could see him move away from Liverpool, it was only a matter of time before opportunistic clubs would try to capitalize on what was perceived as unhappiness on Merseyside. That the club have now opened negotiations with Gerrard on an extension seems to have escaped everyone's knowledge.
Gerrard won't be giving up the Mersey for the shores of Lake Ontario any time soon, no matter how much a player of his calibre would positively impact MLS as a league. Canada sends its apologies!