Liverpool return for Steven Gerrard begs the question: how was he allowed to leave in first place?

COMMENT: Former Anfield captain could in line for sensation return

Steven Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers (GETTY IMAGES)

The most obvious answers are often there all along. It just requires the gift of fresh eyes to see them. That’s why Jürgen Klopp looked at Alberto Moreno, a left-back, and thought it would be a very good idea for Liverpool to start employing him as... a left-back. And it is the reason he wondered why on God’s earth Steven Gerrard, an individual so fundamental to Liverpool Football Club that he would text transfer targets on the manager’s behalf and break bread with prospective owners, had been allowed to leave Anfield and close the door behind him.

If the very detailed picture of his exit which Gerrard has released in fragments is to be believed, then it has been nothing less than a dereliction of duty on the club’s part. The man was woven into the fabric of the place, just like Jamie Carragher – another who should never have gone. Yet when his agent, Struan Marshall, turned up for a critical contract meeting, the chief executive, Ian Ayre, was late. The assignation lasted a mere 15 minutes because Liverpool had other engagements to see to.

The contrast with Manchester United’s commitment to Ryan Giggs is striking. I remember how, after David Moyes’ departure, some clumsy phrasing on my part created the faint impression that United might be prepared to lose Giggs if Louis van Gaal had not wanted him. The executive chairman, Ed Woodward, let me know his displeasure.

You always felt there was an element of self-preservation where Brendan Rodgers was concerned. Many outsiders have felt the keen, critical eye of the Merseyside establishment in the Anfield corridors and sought to protect themselves against it. Rodgers appointed many acolytes with a very distinctive brand of devotion to him. Gerrard respected his coaching deeply but was not religiously devoted. Klopp does not fear a Gerrard power base. He has the self-confidence to know that he is the man.

It is certainly a less complicated discussion that he will have with Gerrard than the ones Rodgers found himself circling around at a time when the captain’s expectations of game time exceeded what Rodgers was prepared to offer last season. The conversation between the two when Rodgers told Gerrard last March that he would not be starting against Manchester United was excruciating. The occasional start, which has not been ruled out, would now be extraordinary. Back then it felt desultory. The allure of LA was also in the background, then. Gerrard knows the Californian reality, now. Long-distance travel. A variable quality of sport. Loneliness.

Klopp is not the only one who has appreciated that a presence such as Gerrard or Carragher offers something more ethereal than a day-to-day contribution. The deep commitment of Tom Werner, the chairman, to Gerrard staying seemed to compound the mystery of how they let him go in the first place. Klopp wants Gerrard to bring professionalism to Melwood, though the 35-year-old’s contribution amid such emerging talents as Cameron Brannagan and Connor Randall is likely to reach well beyond that. To have watched Gerrard at close quarters at the club’s Kirkby academy, a year ago, was to know the effect he has on the club’s next generation.

One of the 10 giant boards depicting Liverpool legends at Anfield encapsulates what Liverpool lost when he left. “Once in a generation a player comes along for whom nothing seems impossible,” it states. “Luckily that man wears the No 8 shirt at Anfield.” There could be no wiser move than Klopp’s attempt to draw him back.