LOYALTY and football. Not two words you would normally see in the same sentence in these grab-what-you can days.

But Steven Gerrard has proved that loyalty still does exist in the world of professional football. What Gerrard has shown in his sudden change of heart about leaving Liverpool is that he cares deeply and passionately about the club that discovered and nurtured him and that he has binding, emotional ties to the Anfield fans who adore him.

You only had to look at him in the last few days to see the mental torture he was putting himself through.

Gerrard didn't need to be told that he would have his pick of the biggest and richest clubs on the planet if he severed his 12-year association with his one and only football club.

In the end his roots and his heritage counted for more than anything else. For once in an utterly selfish profession, a true global star has allowed his heart to rule his head.

It was the right decision and one, I'm convinced, that he won't live to regret.

And it has another welcome repercussion. For a certain Russian billionaire down at Stamford Bridge will now know that while his untold millions can buy most things in life, they can't buy loyalty.

Of course there will be cynics out there who will claim that the sacrifice Gerrard has made in remaining at Anfield is, in reality, no sacrifice at all. A new contract worth £100,000 a week. Some sacrifice that is. Who wouldn't stay put for a hundred grand a week?

But if Gerrard had jumped ship and climbed aboard the gravy boat at Chelsea he would have earned even more. A whole lot more - £30,000 a week more. And that's a lot of cash even for someone earning £100,000 a week.

But my guess is that Gerrard's stay- or-go dilemma was never about money in the first place. It was all about fulfilling his football ambitions. He achieved one of those ambitions when he held aloft the Champions League trophy at the end of last season.

But would he ever do that again as captain of Liverpool? Which club is more likely to dominate English soccer over the next five years - Chelsea or Liverpool? That will be a question, I'm sure, that Gerrard will have asked himself a thousand times and I'm equally sure that he will have answered "Chelsea" on every occasion.

That, more than money, is the sacrifice that Gerrard has made in sticking with Liverpool.

Whichever club he joined, be it Chelsea, Real Madrid or United, there was a very real chance that the trophies he'd dreamed about would come his way.

All that will have weighed heavily on Gerrard's mind as he considered his future - a virtual guarantee of achieving all his professional ambitions elsewhere or staying with his one and only club in the hope that Liverpool will, in the foreseeable future, recapture their former glories.

In the end he couldn't cut the cord which has bound him to Anfield for his entire life.

Nor could he tear himself away from the fans who adore him and have helped to make him the player he is today. And don't worry. All those supporters who burned there Gerrard shirts when they thought he was leaving will be queuing-up at the Liverpool souvenir shop to buy a replacement right now.

In these old eyes, Gerrard's decision to stay with the club he so clearly and dearly loves is the feel-good story of the summer. It washes away some of the layers of cynicism which build up when I see a player kissing his badge one week and signing for a different club the next.

So more power to your elbow, Stevie lad. Chelsea have proved that you can buy a Premiership title. You've proved that you can't buy loyalty. Tweet