Former Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard has opened up on his dismissal from the club, revealing elements of a conversation he had with Sir Alex Ferguson after leaving Villa.
The 2023/24 campaign was a breath of fresh air for Aston Villa, as the Midlands side progressed significantly in Unai Emery’s first full season at the club.
Having already returned Villa to the Champions League, it’s hard to believe that the Spaniard only arrived in October 2022, when he drove the squad from 16th to seventh in his first spell.
The team he took charge of was built and controlled by Steven Gerrard, who after an average first season at Villa Park, saw his career in B6 plummet as a slow start to the 2022/23 calendar cost him his job.
Now managing Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia, the former Villa boss has had to witness what Emery has created from his rubble, with Gerrard now opening up about his actions after being sacked by Villa.
Steven Gerrard spoke to Sir Alex Ferguson after being sacked by Aston Villa
After 11 months at Villa Park, the Englishman was dismissed as Villa became relegation candidates at the start of 2022/23.
Gerrard maintained a win rate of just 33% during his time at the club, averaging 1.18 points per game, leading to him being forced to walk and Emery to take over.
In an interview with the Telegraph, the former Villa manager revealed that after being let go by the Midlands club, he sought advice from Sir Alex Ferguson.
“It was tough. It hurt. I felt it. But what people need to understand is if I didn’t feel that, if I didn’t take that personally, if I didn’t take full responsibility for that, then I am not Steven Gerrard anymore because when it’s football and it’s professional and it’s something that I love, I will always own it.
“I am not one of those people who looks to blame, who looks to point fingers. It’s not my style and that’s the reason why I needed a period of time to process that hard toughness.
“It knocked my confidence a little bit. It does. I spoke to a lot of managers around it. I went to see Alex Ferguson for a couple of hours and he said ‘take your time, don’t jump into anything. Take your time and process it, analyse it’.”
Gerrard was appointed after his blistering success as manager of Rangers, where he won the Scottish Premiership, though his coaching run was not able to be replicated at Villa.
Aston Villa will be thankful for Steven Gerrard’s blunder
Unfortunately, Gerrard’s time at Villa will go down as being the failure that allowed Emery to walk through the door, as the club has moved onto far greater things since his dismissal.
In the former Rangers boss’ first season at Villa Park, the Liverpool legend drove Villa to a 14th-place finish in the Premier League, losing 19 out of 38 games and scoring 52 goals, seeing their campaign end on 52 points.
In 2023/24 under Emery, Villa finished on 68 points, having scored 76 goals and lost only 10 games in the schedule, telling of just how much of an improvement there has been since Gerrard’s departure.
For keeping Villa up that term, the club will be grateful to Gerrard for his work, however, the former manager’s failures outweighed the good.
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