The Reds legend was sacked by Aston Villa in October, but can rebuild his career if he chooses his next job carefully
For Steven Gerrard, a perfect world was once less than 15 minutes away. Fast forward 12 months, it looks further away than ever.
A year ago this weekend, his Aston Villa side were 2-0 up at Manchester City on the final day of the season and about to hand Liverpool, the club with which Gerrard will forever be associated, the Premier League title. It felt almost too good to be true, the Anfield hero doing pretty much the only thing he never quite could as a player, delivering a league title for his beloved Reds. It was Jurgen Klopp’s natural successor, doing the business for Jurgen Klopp.
But as the intros were being written and the montages prepared, Villa collapsed, conceding three goals in the space of five minutes and losing 3-2. Gerrard and his players were mocked (and in at least one instance, attacked) by pitch-invading City fans, then forced to watch, grim-faced, as Pep Guardiola's men lifted yet another Premier League trophy.
You could argue that nothing has been the same since. Not for Liverpool, whose misery was compounded by defeat in the Champions League final the following weekend, and who are now scrambling just to get into the top four after a dreadful campaign.
And certainly not for Gerrard, whose Villa reign would be over within five months of that City game, and who now finds himself out work and wondering when, and indeed where, he will get the opportunity to relaunch his managerial career.
GettyA shock to the system
Gerrard has been in the television studio this week, covering the Champions League semi-finals for . He enjoys the work, and he’s a passionate, eloquent and insightful pundit too, but where he really wants to be is back on the training pitch, back in the manager’s office.
“I’ve got the bug,” he told old foe Gary Neville in an interview last year, and that hasn’t changed despite his experience at Villa, where he lasted just 11 months and won only 13 games in all competitions.
A shock to the system it most certainly was. Until then, Gerrard’s coaching career had gone pretty smoothly. He spent a year learning the ropes and making excellent connections with Liverpool’s Under-18 side – Curtis Jones and Neco Williams were among his success stories there – before taking on and embracing the considerable challenge of reviving Rangers up in the Scottish Premiership.
He did so successfully, too, ending the club’s 10-year wait for a league championship in 2020-21, doing so without losing a single match and in the process denying hated rivals Celtic the chance to record 10 titles in a row. Given where the Gers were when he took over, it was some achievement.
His decision to leave Ibrox for Villa, a few weeks into the following campaign, was not one he took lightly. It inevitably earned him some criticism from Rangers fans, but they couldn’t argue with what Gerrard did for their club during his time in Glasgow. They wouldn't mind having him again, that's for sure.
AdvertisementGettyEarly promise at Villa
Gerrard’s reasons for taking the Villa job were obvious. They might have been struggling at the time, but the size, history and potential of the club was clear, and the lure of managing in the Premier League simply too big for any young manager to ignore, especially one eager to be closer to his family on Merseyside.
At Villa,he had a chief executive, Christian Purslow, whom he knew from Liverpool, there was money to spend in the transfer market, a huge fanbase desperate for success and a decent blend of young and experienced players, which he felt he could mould into something pretty decent.
The early signs were good, too. Gerrard, who brought the bulk of his tight-knit Rangers coaching staff with him to Birmingham, guided Villa to three wins from his first four matches in charge. His first three defeats were narrow ones against Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool, who triumphed only courtesy of a debatable Mo Salah penalty.
Klopp was impressed by what he saw that day. Gerrard had immediately made Villa more solid, harder to beat. They were well-drilled, aggressive and ran hard, and gave Liverpool one of their toughest games of the season.
Villa went on from there, and by the time they beat Leeds 3-0 last March, they were ninth in the table and looking at a possible late charge towards Europe. All was looking rosy.
Getty ImagesNew dawn fades
That dawn, however, was to prove a false one, as Villa won only two of their last 11 games of last season, finishing the campaign 14th.
They started this season poorly as well, beaten 2-0 on the opening weekend by newly-promoted Bournemouth and winning only one of their first six league games. They were rarely battered, and held Manchester City to a draw at Vila Park, but they desperately lacked a cutting edge in attack – a fact evidenced by the fact that, prior to his sacking in October, Gerrard’s side scored two or more goals only once in 11 Premier League matches.
The end came after a 3-0 defeat at Fulham, in which Douglas Luiz was sent off and Gerrard was jeered by his own supporters after opting to replace a striker, Danny Ings, with a midfielder, Leander Dendoncker. Villa were 17th in the table by that point, above the relegation zone only on goals scored, and there was little surprise when Gerrard's dismissal was confirmed in what, on reflection, was a rather terse club statement.
Gerrard himself issued a statement thanking Villa's board, players and fans. "It is regrettable that it didn’t work out in the end," he said. “But I owe you a debt of gratitude for the way you welcomed me into your club, and continued to push the team on during difficult times. Aston Villa is a club with a special history, I really wanted to bring back those memorable achievements, unfortunately it wasn’t to be."
Getty ImagesBad luck, bad decisions and Coutinho
It is easy, with hindsight, to point out the things that Gerrard did wrong at Villa. His public criticism of Tyrone Mings, whom he stripped of the club captaincy last summer, for example, is one that he may look back on with regret, as is his inability to get a team with the likes of Ings, Ollie Watkins, Philippe Coutinho, Leon Bailey, Jacob Ramsey and Emi Buendia scoring goals regularly.
But there was plenty of misfortune, too. To lose Diego Carlos, a £26 million ($32m) summer signing and a perfect Mings’ replacement, to a ruptured Achilles tendon after just two games of the season was hugely damaging, and Gerrard was also forced to do without another summer purchase, Boubacar Kamara, as well as his first-choice left-back, Lucas Digne, for the final weeks of his tenure.
His failure to coax consistent performances out of Coutinho, however, will be a source of huge frustration, and cost Gerrard dear in the long run. The Brazilian’s signing, initially on loan from Barcelona and then permanently, was seen at the time as a huge coup for Villa, and a perfect example of Gerrard’s pulling power as a manager.
Now, it just looks like an expensive mistake.