Gillett: Gerrard's a bit 'Brokeback'

Last updated : 19 April 2011 By Adam Bryant

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As George Gillett digested the words he was reading, the blood drained slowly from his face.

Surely there was a misprint in this report about Steven Gerrard marrying his long-term partner Alex which completely changed its meaning.

He read it again but it came out the same, so he phoned his co-owner: “Tom, there's something you need to know. Our team captain is gay.”

A bemused Hicks asked for the evidence and when Gillett read it to him, in between guffaws, he explained that in England the term “partner” can refer to a member of the opposite sex.

Their captain wasn't tackling for the other side. Alex was a woman.

It was just another example of the The Madness of King George, typified by him pulling a fistful of dollars from his pocket and claiming there was no limit to how much manager Rafa Benitez could spend. He could sign “Snoogy Doogy” if he wanted.

“He just sat there chuckling away looking like one of the Muppets,” said Jamie Carragher. “It only needed Hicks next to him and we'd have had Waldorf and Statler.”

Gillett’s favourite phrase, when Benitez tried to pin him down on his transfer budget was: “I'll give you £50million plus whatever we get in the draft”, which was so nonsensical it almost had Benitez butting walls.

He answered one transfer budget request by telling Benitez he’d spotted a new running machine in America, and perhaps if he got one it would improve the players he already had.

As someone who saw the Benitez e-mails remarked: “They looked like they'd been sent from the funny farm.”

The irony was that Gillett confided in more than one journalist that Benitez had serious mental problems. He even coined a name for the condition. Rafa, he would say, is a “Serial Transactionist.”

Not long after Robbie Keane signed for £20million, Gillett breezed into the hotel restaurant on the morning of a game, shouting “Hey, where's Keano? I gotta see this Keano.”

Keane piped up: “I'm Keano.”

To which Gillett replied: "Jeez, you're not very big for all that money we spent on you, are you?"

He was on true eccentric form when Liverpool travelled to Fiorentina.

Ten minutes into the second half, he disappeared inside the stadium only to return laden with Cornettos, Magnums and choc ices, which he handed out to everyone in the directors' box. At 10pm. With winter around the corner.

A senior figure tells of the comical nature of one of the early board meetings.

Halfway through, Gillett stood up and announced he and his son Foster were leaving to watch the players train at Melwood.

There was an embarrassed silence as the pair left and a decision was taken for the entire board to climb into cars, zoom off in pursuit of the Gilletts and re-convene the meeting in the Melwood dining room - a scenario made even more surreal by Gillett constantly leaping up to wave at players.