:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/36297162/20140730_ter_ae5_275.jpg.0.jpg)
When you're Steven Gerrard, a contract extension is an inevitability, not something to fret over. At thirty-four, the Liverpool captain's Premiere League future lies only with his boyhood club and although he's got a year left on his contract, it's deeply unlikely that it would not be extended by at least another year should he wish to continue playing. Like most of his recent extensions, it's not a matter of if but when.
Gerrard himself isn't taking anything for granted, though, as he's apparently yet to be approached by the club to secure an extension on his existing contract. Retirement from international duty means increased focus on his club commitments, and Gerrard isn't looking further than his next campaign at this point.
"Brendan [Rodgers] has mentioned [an extension] a couple of times in the media but no talks have happened," the captain said in an oddly lackadaisical interview. "I am not trying to call the club out or anything like that. It’s not like that. I’m sure we will talk in the future but we will have to wait and see.
"I hope that I [am] here for more than one year, of course I do. But it is all about this season for me. I can only speak with what I have got left on my contract here and that is another year. It could be my last season, I don’t know. I'll keep fighting for every prize that's available this season and give it everything I've got."
In other words, he'll go again giving 150% while he fights for his life. Gerrard continues to be one of the few one club men left in the game, and while most can't picture him doing anything but retiring in red and eventually working for the club in another capacity, the recent decision of ex-England teammate Frank Lampard to pick up and move to New York City to play in MLS has the Liverpool man tentatively considering his own options beyond Liverpool.
"One day that might happen to me, I don't know," Gerrard said. "I've never really discussed it with anyone or thought about it. Maybe one day I would like the chance to go away from Liverpool for a short time and try something different. But I haven't given it much thought. That carrot hasn't been dangled yet."
For a player who is running out of time to consider other leagues, even by the standards of MLS' old age threshold, it seems unlikely Gerrard would actually end up somewhere else on the continent or in New York or Los Angeles. His rather non-committal tone seems closer to a polite answer to a slightly ageist quesiton than an actual interest in moving away from the Merseyside area, and that's probably just fine for most Liverpool fans.
