Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has insisted that there is "no sentiment" attached to his decision to keep Steven Gerrard at the club.

The former England captain recently suggested that he is open to leaving Anfield should the club decide against offering the 34-year-old fresh terms.

Rumours have emerged claiming that the midfielder is wanted by Manchester City and a possible switch to the MLS in the United States could be an option, but Rodgers revealed at the weekend that the club are in talks with Gerrard about a new deal.

Despite the Liverpool talisman having played for his boyhood club for his entire career so far, Rodgers has insisted that the new contract offer is based purely on Gerrard's contribution as a footballer.

"It's certainly not sentimental," the Liverpool Echo quotes Rodgers as saying. "As a manager you can't afford to do that. I just look at his contribution in the two and a half years I've been here.

"When I came in Steven was 32, had struggled with injury, hadn't played consistently over a number of years and I came in and sold him the idea, the philosophy of how we wanted to work and his importance. In that period he's been absolutely outstanding.

"I want to ensure on this second curve we're on, in terms of the development of this group, that he is very much a part of that. There is certainly no sentiment involved in it."

Gerrard, who has been Liverpool captain for the last 11 years, joined the Reds when he was nine years old.