Paul Gerrard

Paul Gerrard

Personal information
Full name	Paul William Gerrard
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team	Sheffield United
Number	29
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 2006-09-28

Paul William Gerrard (born January 22, 1973 in Heywood, near Rochdale, Lancashire), is an English football goalkeeper who plays for Sheffield United in the F.A. Premership. He is also a former England Under 21 international.

Biography

Gerrard started his career as a goalkeeping apprentice at Oldham Athletic under Joe Royle and made his debut in the Premiership at the age of 19 on December 5 1992 in a 3-2 defeat at Queen's Park Rangers. In all, he made 118 League appearances for The Latics.

Nearly 2 years after Joe Royle had left Oldham for Everton, he returned to buy Gerrard for £1 million in July 1996, He made his debut for Everton as a half-time substitute for Neville Southall in a 7-1 win at home to Southampton on November 16 1996.

When Royle left Everton, Neville Southall returned between as first choice goalkeeper for Everton and Gerrard decided to go on loan to Oxford United in 1997 for regular first team action. However, after Howard Kendall took over for his second spell as team manager at Goodison Park, Gerrard was recalled from Oxford. Despite this, Gerrard only played a small number of games.

Royle, now at Ipswich, swooped to sign Gerrard on loan, although he returned to Everton after an injury to first choice goalkeeper Thomas Myhre in the 2002-03 season.

In 2003-04, he was signed on loan by Sheffield United. He played a total of 16 games for the Blades, before joining Nottingham Forest on loan in March 2004 for the final two months of the season.

In the summer of 2004, Gerrard signed permanently for Nottingham Forest despite Ipswich and Leeds being interested but the season proved to be a disaster with the club being relegated to League One.

Despite ending the 2004-05 season as first-choice goalkeeper and Player of the Year at Forest, Gerrard found himself as second choice goalkeeper behind new signing Rune Pedersen. Although he handed in a transfer request, Gerrard returned to first team action at the end of August in a 3-1 win against Gillingham.

Gerrard was again dropped from the first team when manager Gary Megson signed Russell Hoult on loan from West Bromwich Albion. However, Russell Hoult was recalled by West Brom in October and Gerrard returned as number one at Forest.

By February 2006, Forest were a few points adrift of the play-offs, but on February 15 Gerrard limped off in a 3-0 defeat against former club Oldham Athletic, and a day later Megson resigned as manager of Nottingham Forest. He played only one game under Ian McParland and Frank Barlow due to a knee injury. Gerrard was released from Forest at the end of the 2005-06 season to free up some money on the wage bill.

On September 27 2006, he signed a four-month contract with the Blades to add depth to the goalkeeping department. The 33-year-old, who had a loan spell at Bramall Lane in 2003, has signed a deal which runs until January 2007. He will provide cover for Paddy Kenny and Ian Bennett.

External links

• Paul Gerrard at Soccerbase