Sir Alex Ferguson’s book launch, an autobiography detailing the Scot’s 27-year reign as Manchester United manager and giving an insight into his personal views on leadership, has triggered a wave of controversy in England.

The retired Red Devil has revealed in his new publishing his true feelings on a number of former players, such as David Beckham, Roy Keane, Wayne Rooney and Mark Bosnic, and his opinions have hardly been flattering considering the vital contributions they’ve made to Ferguson’s managerial achievements over the years.

Perhaps most surprisingly however, Ferguson has also shared his views on several players that he’s never actually worked with, including Liverpool starlet Jordan Henderson, citing the midfielder’s gait and tendency to ‘run from his knees’, as well as long-serving Reds skipper Steven Gerrard.

According to the United icon, Gerrard is not, and was never a ‘top, top player’, which in modern terms, triggers the age old debate of what does and doesn’t qualify as world-class.

Certainly a controversial point of view, in fact, it’s hard to imagine a more controversial point of view in the current climate considering the 32 year-old is currently serving as England captain and still revelling in the glory of  an incredibly strong World Cup qualification campaign from the Liverpool midfielder.

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So it’s time to ask – is Ferguson simply trying to sell books? Dishing out little nuggets of hullabaloo to entice potential readers into handing over their cash to read the Scot’s ultimate statement on his illustrious career? It’s already sold 115,547 to date, making it the UK’s biggest first week sale for a non-fiction title since official records began 15 years ago.

Or does he have a valid point regarding Gerrard’s actual quality, that shouldn’t be overlooked and misinterpreted as simply an exercise in promotion advertising?

Many have come out since the book launch to speak against Ferguson’s harsh critique of the Liverpool skipper, including Kenny Dalglish, Brendan Rodgers and Zinedine Zidane. Their opinions are valued and valid, regardless of their Liverpudlian bias, but there is some weight behind the Scot’s argument too, that should not be frosted over as part of the  famous Anfield-Old Trafford rivalry.

I’m a firm believer that silverware will always remain a strong indicator, if not a deciding factor, of a player’s ability, and due to Gerrard’s devout loyalty to his boyhood club, the England midfielder’s personal trophy cabinet is rather limited. A UEFA Cup, a Champions League title, two FA Cups and three League Cups is hardly a shabby haul, but compare that to his counterparts at Manchester United and Chelsea, and the Liverpool icon is some way behind. Of course, the obvious absentee is the Premier League title.

That being said, he’s arguably the greatest player to have plied his trade in the Premiership without winning the English crown, and silverware certainly isn’t the be all and end all of a player’s quality – John O’Shea has lifted five PL titles and a Champions League, but there’s a reason he’s seeing out his twilight years at Sunderland whilst Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic are still at Old Trafford.

At the same time, Gerrard has claimed several individual honours and achieved countless personal accomplishments that should not be forgotten. The 32 year-old has already claimed the B’allon D’or Bronze award (2005), the FWA Footballer of the Year award (2009), the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award (2009), the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year award twice (2001 and 2009) and the England Player of the Year award twice (2007 and 2012), as well as being named in the PFA Team of the Year seven times out of 16 senior campaigns to date and picking up the Man of the Match award for both the 2005 Champions League final and the 2006 FA Cup final.

In addition to his material honours, the Liverpool veteran has also featured 107 times for England, captained for club and country on a permanent basis and claimed 100 Premier League goals – an astonishing achievement for a central midfielder. Chelsea fans will be quick to point out Frank Lampard has trumped his goal tally by some way, being the Premier League’s top goalscoring midfielder to date with 166. But his Anfield rival has made over 100 top flight appearances less than the Blues veteran.

But trophies and accomplishments aside, I still have my reservations about where Gerrard should be ranked in the hierarchy of football’s and England’s greatest talents. It’s his swash-buckling, action-packed, aggressively emotive yet illogical style of play that concerns me most. The tough-tackles, 70 yard passes and 30 yard goals are certainly entertaining, but his direct, physical and almost primordial  manner of play has come to symbolise everything that’s wrong with the English brand of football. You certainly wouldn’t see that kind of thing at Barcelona, whom I will always uphold play the beautiful game in its purest and most demanding sense.

Compare that to the playmaking maestro styles of Paul Scholes, who has countless testimonies of his greatness from the Catalan camp, including from Xavi, who has dubbed the retired United icon as the greatest midfielder of the last twenty years, and I’m sure you’ll understand what I’m getting at.

And whilst the ginger pass-master, in addition to England rival Frank Lampard, have only matured with age, the former modifying his game into a deeper midfield role to play until he was 38, and the latter silencing his critics from the early years by reaching double figures for an incredible tenth season in a row, Gerrard’s on-pitch escapades have never exceeded those of his younger years.

Admittedly, Liverpool’s recent decline has certainly had a role to play, but whilst Scholes and Lampard were vital cogs in the machine at Manchester United and Chelsea, Gerrard has been the focal point of the first team at Anfield, with entire starting XI’s forged around his abilities, for over a decade.

My personal opinion is that perhaps Ferguson has a point – the Liverpool midfielder falls short by my estimations when he’s compared to his closest counterparts, especially in terms of silverware.

But the Telegraph’s Henry Winter has a slightly different story that shares some light on the retired United gaffer’s rather grumpy analysis of the Reds skipper. In 2006, Gerrard claimed that he’d once turned down the opportunity to sign for Manchester United as a 14 year-old, instead using Ferguson’s contract offer as leverage for his own YTS contract at Anfield.

Seeing as we’re all aware of the Scot’s firey temper and often vengeful wrath, containing an almost Mafioso ‘never forget’ twang, the notion of Fergie’s indictment containing an element of hard-feeling due to Gerrard’s rejection all those years ago is hardly absurd.

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