Steven Gerrard has got Aston Villa fans talking with his latest comments.
The former Aston Villa manager is currently managing Saudi Arabian club Al-Ettifaq and has opened up on his time at the Villa Park club in an interview with The Telegraph.
The Liverpool legend was brought to the club in November 2021 to replace Dean Smith but was sacked less than a year later in October after a run of just two wins in 12 games.
Speaking on his time at Villa, Gerrard made a surprising statement, as he said: “I’ve had success up to a certain point. I actually felt my own performance at Villa was really good.
“I actually felt I went to the next level in terms of what I had learnt from Rangers. I felt like I had grown.”
Dan Bardell disagrees with Steven Gerrard’s claims
When you consider the job Unai Emery has done since taking over from Gerrard in November 2022, you can see that these comments may seem misguided.
Emery has taken Villa from what looked set to be a relegation battle to the Champions League in 18 months, putting Gerrard to shame.
Sky Sports News presenter and host of the 1874 podcast Dan Bardell was less than impressed with Gerrard’s comments and questioned the seemingly bizarre timing of the interview, posting on ‘X’: “
“When AVFC have just qualified for the Champions League is probably not the wisest time for Gerrard to get into his AVFC tenure.”
Bardell then followed this up with another post to really hammer home the point, saying: “Steven doesn’t seem to remember his time at AVFC in the same way that I do…
“Gerrard’s reign was largely awful, but we kept being told things would change in the summer.
“They did change, we got worse.”
Gerrard’s Aston Villa record makes grim reading
Bardell did not pull any punches with his comments, but when you compare Gerrard’s time at Villa with the subsequent turnaround under Emery it is like comparing night and day.
Across his tenure at the club, Gerrard oversaw 38 league games – the same as a regular Premier League season – and won just 12.
Villa drew eight in that time, with the 18 losses the standout figure.
For context, in the 2023/24 season, the 44 points those results would have accumulated if they were across one season would have seen Villa finish 14th, just above Everton and Nottingham Forest who had points deducted.
Instead, Villa finished fourth on 68 points under Emery and won a remarkable 20 league games.
The post Dan Bardell takes swipe at Steven Gerrard following his 'awful' Aston Villa remarks appeared first on Aston Villa News.