Former Liverpool player John Barnes has claimed that the club have not forced Steven Gerrard into leaving.
The 34-year-old will depart the Reds when his contract expires at the end of the season and join a club in the MLS.
"I don't think that they are forcing Steven out," Barnes told BBC Sport. "I think that he has decided that he wants to play more regularly than it has probably been intimated to him that he will, so he has decided to move on.
"I don't think that Liverpool should have been held to ransom to say give Steven Gerrard anything he wants to stay. When you do get to a certain stage of your career things change."
It is believed that the Los Angeles Galaxy are leading the race for Gerrard's signature.
