In September 2009, Liverpool lost 2–0 at Fiorentina in the Champions League. In the tunnel before kickoff, Christian Purslow, the club’s chief executive who grew up near Aylesbury and was educated at Cambridge and Harvard, went up to captain Steven Gerrard, gave him a friendly slap on the backside and, adopting a faux-Scouse accent, encouraged him with the words, “Go ‘ed, Stevie, la.”
It was a moment most who witnessed it seem to have regarded with a mixture of embarrassment and hilarity, but it was also telling of the relationship between Purslow, a boyhood Liverpool fan, and Gerrard, a player he idolized.