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Steven Gerrard will walk out of the Anfield tunnel for the last time as a player on Saturday. Since announcing his intention to depart the only club he's ever known, Gerrard's season has been building to this moment and it's one that his club are keen to recognize.
That Gerrard's final home match isn't also the last match of the season means double the goodbyes the following week at Stoke City, but Saturday is the captain's final goodbye to the home fans and his club are planning on commemorating his tenure with a guard of honour prior to the match. It's not exactly an unexpected move despite the story making the rounds as if there was any chance the club wouldn't honour the Huyton man in this manner, but it's a lovely gesture nonetheless.
What's less lovely is the price bump Gerrard's final home game has caused in the secondary ticket market. When Gerrard made his departure announcement in January, any remaining tickets to the Crystal Palace match were quickly snapped up. That hasn't stopped tickets from appearing on ticket re-seller sites for ungodly sums upwards of £1250 for a single ticket, which is disappointing given that the club have its own service fans can use to sell their tickets to other fans at face value rather than selling them elsewhere and jacking up the price.
If the thought of paying £1250 for a ticket makes you cry — either because you can't afford it or because you can afford it but don't live in Liverpool — don't tell Jamie Carragher. The former Red isn't interested in your tears, not even if you've given seventeen years of your life to your boyhood club.
"I think he’ll be looking forward to the game and will get a great send-off," Carra said on Gerrard's final home match. His last game is the week after at Stoke, but for me this is his last game. It’s at Anfield, where he’s been his whole career. I just hope he doesn’t start crying and all that nonsense at the end or get emotional. Sami Hyypia did that."
Heaven forbid a man express himself by letting water leak out of his face, but regardless of Carra's opinion on The Merits of Men Crying™, Steven Gerrard has shown himself to be an emotional man in the past when the moment has called for it. If ever a moment called for a show of overwhelming feels, surely the captain's final match at Anfield is that moment.
