Steven Gerrard returns to Liverpool with Aston Villa starting to audition to replace Jurgen Klopp

No matter what he does as Aston Villa management, Steven Gerrard’s post-playing career will ultimately be determined by whether his path takes him back Liverpool. Football loves the story of a returning hero and there is no one greater than Gerrard to return to the club he has been with for more than 15 years, but it is a trap of nostalgia that will always threaten him. exit.

Saturday saw Gerrard’s first game action at Anfield since playing his last game for the club in May 2015 and his return has made his mark in his stewardship. by winning the Scottish Premiership with Rangers previous season. Many legendary players have great expectations from the management for their feats on the pitch, but few can live up to the hype; However, Gerrard has proven his ability as a winning coach, and that is why Villa recruited him last month to replace sacked Dean Smith.

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This weekend is seen by many as the premise for the day Gerrard took over home and lived out the fairy tale of being the local boy who was arguably the club’s greatest player before repeating his heroic things as a coach. It’s happened before at Liverpool: Kenny Dalglish, Gerrard’s biggest rival for Anfield’s player of the year award, has gone from player to manager and led the club to three league titles. and two FA Cups in his first career as a coach. So if Dalglish can do it, why not Gerrard?

In terms of preparing for a successful managerial career, Gerrard has prepared himself better than most. He managed Liverpool’s under-18 team for 18 months, learning the strings as part of Jurgen Klopp’s training, then moved to Rangers at the same time as completing his UEFA Pro-License, by important level to allow him to manage at the top.

And his three years at Ibrox taught him about late-stage management, at a huge club demanding success, to which he dedicated himself by stopping Celtic trying to win their 10th consecutive Scottish title. So Gerrard stepped up to the Premier League at Villa having a solid foundation in coaching.

But what happens next could be the biggest question of his career. Klopp’s contract at Liverpool expires at the end of the 2023-24 season and, given he said in August 2020 that he would “take a year off and ask myself if I miss football”, the prospect of a managerial position in two and a half years was real. If Gerrard performs well at Villa, calls for him to succeed Klopp will become inevitable.

But is that fair to him or the team he manages? Villa are too big a club – European champions in 1982 and seven-time England champions – to be a springboard and Gerrard must prove himself in the Premier League without having to constantly be judged on whether he can win. enough to succeed Klopp or not.

Liverpool’s owners may be unemotional over the decision and choose a coach with Champions League pedigree as the only way to a club defined by their success in European football. , but while Gerrard is managing, it will always be the case – – not if – that he returns to Anfield. That will be the topic of conversation between fans and professionals alike before, during and after this weekend’s game.

Very few people have succeeded in management jobs at clubs where they became legends as players. Zinedine Zidane has won three Champions League titles as Real Madrid coach, while Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola became icons at Barcelona. However, even Cruyff was sacked at Camp Nou, despite the fact that the team won their first European Cup.

Alan Shearer and Kevin Keegan (Newcastle United Football Club), Glenn Hoddle (Tottenham Hotspur) and Frank Lampard (Chelsea) were held in high regard as Gerrard, but failed to achieve success as managers at their former club, while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was at Manchester United is the most recent example of not being given a management position where he has made a name for himself.

Even Dalglish, in his second Liverpool shirt, was sacked when things went awry, so the sentiment that could have fueled the date had long evaporated by the time the ax had to fall.

Gerrard may be different. If he succeeds at Villa and becomes the obvious candidate to replace Klopp, he could be Liverpool’s Zidane or Guardiola rather than their Solskjaer or Shearer. One thing is for sure, the buzz about him managing Liverpool will not go away, whether he likes it or not.