Football

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is close to signing a new four-deal at the club, believed to be worth 120,000 pounds per week.

Following Liverpool's penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea in midweek that set them up for a repeat Champions League final against AC Milan, new co-owner Tom Hicks said: "I cannot see Steven Gerrard playing for another club."

Now the 26-year-old has said he wants to commit his long-term future to the club he has been at since his school days.

"Tom Hicks has said he cannot see me playing for another club, and yes, I'm in talks to extend my contract at Liverpool and I've never been happier with my football," Gerrard told the official Liverpool

website.

"I'd love nothing better than to get this contract sorted and signed, so I can understand where he's coming from.

"We need to keep all of our big players here so it's very important we get the contracts sorted out so they can be here for a long time."

Only two years ago Gerrard penned his name to a four-year deal that warded off interest from Chelsea.

But his new deal is set to bring him up to a par with the English Premiership's highest earners.

That means he can concentrate on facing Milan in Athens on May 23, with his future secure.

"I'm confident we can go to Athens and bring the cup back home.

"But Milan are a fantastic team and we know it's going to be really difficult, so we need to be right at the top of our game.

"I was really surprised actually that they won their semifinal because I had confidence that Manchester United would get the result they required.

"I thought it was going to be a Liverpool-Manchester United final, but credit to Milan because they were excellent on the night and deserved to win the game."

Two years ago Liverpool came back from 3-0 down at half-time to eventually beat Milan on penalties to lift the Champions League for the fifth time -- Milan have six victories in the competition.

In Italy, all the talk is of gaining revenge for that disappointment.

"Now I am sure Milan will want to make amends for 2005 because I'm sure Istanbul hurt them," said Gerrard. "They have a chance for revenge now but me and the boys are going to be ready for that and we're looking forward to it.

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"They have some quality players like (Gennaro) Gattuso who work really hard for the team but we'll be ready for them on the night. I'm confident we can beat them.

"Obviously I'm very excited. I don't think it's sunk in yet and probably won't until we set off for Athens, and we have got a couple of domestic games first before we start our preparations for the big final.

"But we've got nothing to fear from Milan, we've been there and done it before. We've got a fantastic team spirit, the team is playing really well in Europe and we've got one of the best managers in the world so we have every confidence that we can do it."