Anthony Gerrard on "embarrassing" himself at Chesterfield, retiring and THAT social media spat

Anthony Gerrard has spoken about his time at Chesterfield last season.

The 34-year-old has announced his retirement from football after a 15-year career.

The centre-half was signed by John Sheridan in June 2019 but made just 11 appearances and had his contract cancelled by mutual consent the following January when John Pemberton took over as caretaker manager.

While at the Spireites he was criticised for his weight and was stripped of the captaincy after a Twitter spat with a Town fan which made the national press.

Confirming his retirement and talking about his time at Chesterfield on the Undr The Cosh podcast, Gerrard said: “Yeah, I am officially done. I am not going to belittle a club but I just weren’t there. I was embarrassing myself playing. Just mentally I wasn’t there. Physically (I was) miles off it and no disrespect to the Conference but I think I am better than it to be honest.”

The experienced defender revealed that he almost left the Blues after the third game of last season on August 10 following a 2-2 draw at Boreham Wood.

Gerrard said playing at Boreham was a real “eye-opener” for him after he discovered a “hole” in the penalty spot of the 4G pitch.

He explained: “I was just so close to getting off after the game, like leaving. I spoke to Norm (Mark Crossley) and my head had just gone. I was like ‘I need to go’ and my head just fell off from that point. Loads of stupid stuff happened, it was bizarre to be honest. But like I say when you are not used to it it is a proper eye-opener. That is not me being a snob, there are a lot of good lads who have played in the Conference.”

The former Cardiff City and Huddersfield Town man also said having to wash his own kit was another reality check.

He added: “Once you get used to it, it is fine, not a problem. It was just the little things. But I wasn’t in the right mental state.”

Gerrard’s time at Chesterfield will be most remembered for a row on social media with a Spireites fan which resulted in him being fined three weeks’ wages and having the captain’s armband taken off him.

Responding to what he described as “dog’s abuse” from one supporter on social media, Gerrard responded by saying he pulled his hamstring “rifling” the fan’s mum.

“I was chuckling writing it like,” Gerrard said.

“He was giving me absolute dog’s abuse.

“I was in the house just on the couch and thought ‘you are getting it.’

“It went absolutely crazy. It was that bad that I’ve got a friend who runs the Thai Liverpool supporters club and he sent me a screenshot of a Thai paper with my face and I just thought ‘wow’. It was on TalkSport, on the (Daily) Mail, it went crazy.”

Gerrard asked the fan to meet him in the club car park a few days later so he could “voice his opinion while standing in front of me, rather than acting brave behind your phone.”

A few days later the fan posted a picture on social media of himself waiting in the car park.

On the same day, Gerrard said he was called into a disciplinary meeting with then chief executive, Graham Bean, and the club became aware of the fan waiting outside and, unbeknown to Gerrard, dragged the meeting out for as long as possible until the fan had gone.

“I went in on the Monday and the secretary Nigel (Smith) handed me a piece of paper saying ‘disciplinary’. It had all the transcript, what he’d said, what I’d said, how many people had liked it, how many people had retweeted it. I was just like ‘oh my God’.

“I was sitting there and every time I go to get up he (Bean) kept asking me questions. He was keeping me there, dragging it out. While I was in the interview they (the club) had seen him in the car park.”

Gerrard, who claimed the club wanted to sack him, apologised for the incident and the fan was initially banned from all home games for three years but appealed and the club allowed him to return.

In the end, Gerrard said Bean agreed to give him 80 per cent of the money he was fined back.

“I went to see the chief executive and said I’m not happy. I said I want my money back. He said ‘we can sort that Jez’. He said ‘Maybe not the full amount’. I said ‘how much’ and he said ‘80 per cent’ and I said ‘alright sound’,” Gerrard laughed.