Steven Gerrard said: “The trial changed me. I had to learn from it, from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What hour I am out, where I go out, I will be more careful in future. From now on if we win 5-1, if I score two goals and we go top of the league, I won’t try to enjoy it in a bar with my mates any more, I’ll go for a meal and be in my house by half past ten. We get paid very well and there have to be sacrifices.”

“There is a balance between trying to be a model professional and living like a monk. You have to be able to let your hair down like everybody else but I have always tried to treat people as they treat me. There have been very few instances when I have had problems but I will think about my spare time, even my holiday time, more carefully now. I reckon I have another six years as a professional footballer. It is not so long to make those choices.”

While speaking to DailyMail reporter, Steven Gerrard added: “I’m the sort of player who likes to keep it clean. I was always very decided about the way footballers should behave. I do think it is important.”

“It is not about image or putting on an act but I know a lot of kids look up to me, I get a lot of fan mail from them and at the time I thought I’d let them and a lot of other people down, just by being in this position.

“I was concerned that people wouldn’t think as much of me and that was why the verdict was so crucial. During the trial, when the prosecution was having its say, there were a couple of days when I was reading the reports and thinking, ‘I hope people don’t think that’s what I am like.’”

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