I’m sure the headline will have concerned a few Liverpool fans but let this be a lesson to you all that before Steven began plying his exquisite trade in the top flight there was another young Gerrard who was making a name for himself in the Premiership whose career didn’t quite take the same trajectory as his namesake.

Paul Gerrard looked to be an excellent prospect when he burst onto the Oldham Athletic scene under Joe Royle in the early nineties and played over 100 games for the Latics before Royle, then at Everton, signed him to replace Neville Southall in 1996. Things went downhill rapidly for the young goalkeeper after the move to Merseyside and his early promise which looked sure to earn him England caps faded away with loan moves to Oxford, Ipswich (again under Joe Royle) and Sheffield United coming before a transfer to Nottingham Forest.

Forest released him at the end of last season supposedly citing his Premiership wages as a financial stumbling block and now, without a club, Gerrard has returned to one of his former clubs, Sheffield United, on trial as Neil Warnock tries to secure some cover for the injured Paddy Kenny.

Whether Paul Gerrard can take his last chance at the big time is debatable, he played nearly as many games in his first four seasons at Oldham as he has done for a succession of clubs in the past decade but I would like to see him show what he can really do. We all know that not all footballers can fulfil their early promise but Paul Gerrard was one I really thought would hit the high spots of his profession back in those halcyon Oldham days.

Maybe the hand of fate could give him another chance now at the age of 33.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Sheffield United. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.