bluetornados
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Post by bluetornados on Nov 11, 2021 12:58:41 GMT
Aston Villa have appointed Steven Gerrard as manager on a three-and-a-half-year deal, ending his three-year reign at Rangers.
The former Liverpool captain, 41, leaves the Scottish champions having guided them to a first league title in 10 years last season.
Gerrard replaces Dean Smith, who was sacked on Sunday after a run of five successive defeats.
Villa are 16th in the Premier League, two points above the relegation zone.
"Aston Villa is a club with a rich history and tradition in English football and I am immensely proud to become its new head coach," said Gerrard.
"In my conversations with [co-owners] Nassef [Sawiris], Wes [Edens] and the rest of the board, it was apparent how ambitious their plans are for the club and I am looking forward to helping them achieve their aims."
Gerrard took his first steps in senior management with Scottish Premiership side Rangers in 2018, and leaves with them four points clear of rivals Celtic at the top of the table.
BBC Sport Scotland understands Villa have paid Rangers £4.5m in compensation.
"Steven and his backroom staff have ensured that the club is undoubtedly in a better place today than it was three-and-a-half years ago," said Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson.
"We have shared a desire to move Rangers forward, to modernise our infrastructure and to make the club win again.
"There have been so many areas that we have moved forward, and there is still so much to be done, but I can't stress enough how important it has been to have with us a first-team manager who shared a drive and desire to set standards and move the whole football operation forward."
Gerrard played 710 times for Liverpool, winning nine trophies, and spent a season at MLS side LA Galaxy in 2015 before retiring as a player the following year.
He coached at Liverpool's youth academy before managing the under-18 team during the 2017-18 season.
Gerrard is England's fourth-most capped player with 114 international appearances, in which he scored 21 goals.
Gerrard joins a Villa side who have not collected a Premier League point since beating Manchester United on 25 September.
His first match in charge will be at home to Brighton after the international break, with matches against top four sides Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea among those to follow before the end of 2021.
He is well known to Villa chief executive Christian Purslow, who was previously managing director at Liverpool.
Under Smith, Villa finished 11th in the Premier League last season but following talisman Jack Grealish's move to Manchester City in the summer, results started to slip.
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absent
Joined: February 2021
Posts: 306
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Post by absent on Nov 11, 2021 13:19:56 GMT
A strange move in my opinion. Hard to see how a manager at Aston Villa succeeds beyond securing their own bank balance, and his is already secure enough.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2021 16:02:34 GMT
Isn't loyalty a big thing for Gerrard? Just 3 weeks ago, he was pledging his loyalty to Glasgow Rangers, after being questioned by the various media vultures.
Loyalty ok. To the £.
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Post by alftupper on Nov 11, 2021 22:54:56 GMT
Isn't loyalty a big thing for Gerrard? Just 3 weeks ago, he was pledging his loyalty to Glasgow Rangers, after being questioned by the various media vultures. Loyalty ok. To the £. He stopped Celtic winning 10 in a row, so I`m greatful for that, but he wasn`t an unqualified success. Had one really good season domestically and in Europe. If he takes Morelos with him for 5 or 6 million, I`ll be happy. Be interesting to see how he gets on at Villa. Gatusso is available to take over at Ibrox. Be good to see him back there.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2021 9:00:09 GMT
Isn't loyalty a big thing for Gerrard? Just 3 weeks ago, he was pledging his loyalty to Glasgow Rangers, after being questioned by the various media vultures. Loyalty ok. To the £. He stopped Celtic winning 10 in a row, so I`m greatful for that, but he wasn`t an unqualified success. Had one really good season domestically and in Europe. If he takes Morelos with him for 5 or 6 million, I`ll be happy. Be interesting to see how he gets on at Villa. Gatusso is available to take over at Ibrox. Be good to see him back there.
How about GVB, Alf? My work pal up in East Kilbride says that he's being rumoured. |
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Post by alftupper on Nov 13, 2021 7:31:59 GMT
He stopped Celtic winning 10 in a row, so I`m greatful for that, but he wasn`t an unqualified success. Had one really good season domestically and in Europe. If he takes Morelos with him for 5 or 6 million, I`ll be happy. Be interesting to see how he gets on at Villa. Gatusso is available to take over at Ibrox. Be good to see him back there.
How about GVB, Alf? My work pal up in East Kilbride says that he's being rumoured. It`s looking likely, Dr F. There`s a good squad of players at Ibrox, who, for whatever reason, are not hitting the heights of last season. Anybody worth their salt, should be able to get things ticking over again.
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Post by lostinspace on Nov 14, 2021 10:54:37 GMT
Isn't loyalty a big thing for Gerrard? Just 3 weeks ago, he was pledging his loyalty to Glasgow Rangers, after being questioned by the various media vultures. Loyalty ok. To the £. He stopped Celtic winning 10 in a row, so I`m greatful for that, but he wasn`t an unqualified success. Had one really good season domestically and in Europe. If he takes Morelos with him for 5 or 6 million, I`ll be happy. Be interesting to see how he gets on at Villa. Gatusso is available to take over at Ibrox. Be good to see him back there.
Agree with the stopping of the 10 year waltz, but not so with taking Morelos, he is a firework waiting to explode, GVB may be able to constrain him, ( if he becomes the new man) but don't think he could survive the continual baiting in the PL , more time on the bench than on the grass |
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2021 14:39:19 GMT
Celtic lost that title by being utterly hopeless last year, Rangers are nothing special, not last season nor this.
Celtic have improved, a little, but the standard north of the border is still nowhere near Championship level.
Gerrard is going to struggle at Villa. I have no idea why he's done this.
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warehamgas
Predictions League
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Post by warehamgas on Nov 14, 2021 19:07:26 GMT
I suspect the reason he has taken over at Villa is to give himself a higher profile.
He’s already said his ambition is to manage Liverpool and this job will be an important step towards doing so. Do well at Rangers, beating Ross County, Motherwell and Livingston will hardly set the world alight. Do well at Villa and by that I mean challenge for Europe and then qualify for Europe will put him in a good position. As has been said it won’t be financial reasons.
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absent
Joined: February 2021
Posts: 306
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Post by absent on Nov 14, 2021 19:45:52 GMT
I can't think of a manager that has done well at Villa and moved on to better in my lifetime, other than Graham Taylor and that didn't work out so well.
Time will tell, but I remember when Bryan Robson was supposed to be Alex Ferguson's successor and went to Middlesbrough to prove himself.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2021 11:36:41 GMT
I suspect the reason he has taken over at Villa is to give himself a higher profile. He’s already said his ambition is to manage Liverpool and this job will be an important step towards doing so. Do well at Rangers, beating Ross County, Motherwell and Livingston will hardly set the world alight. Do well at Villa and by that I mean challenge for Europe and then qualify for Europe will put him in a good position. As has been said it won’t be financial reasons. Good luck to the bloke, but I still don't get it. Unless he thinks that the standard north of the border is so low that it's just wasting time staying there? But if that's the case, Villa is a big 'first' job. It's not going to end well. within 2 years he'll be gone and will surface again at somewhere like Birmingham or Forest. |
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warehamgas
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Post by warehamgas on Nov 15, 2021 15:27:38 GMT
I suspect the reason he has taken over at Villa is to give himself a higher profile. He’s already said his ambition is to manage Liverpool and this job will be an important step towards doing so. Do well at Rangers, beating Ross County, Motherwell and Livingston will hardly set the world alight. Do well at Villa and by that I mean challenge for Europe and then qualify for Europe will put him in a good position. As has been said it won’t be financial reasons. Good luck to the bloke, but I still don't get it. Unless he thinks that the standard north of the border is so low that it's just wasting time staying there? But if that's the case, Villa is a big 'first' job. It's not going to end well. within 2 years he'll be gone and will surface again at somewhere like Birmingham or Forest. I don’t disagree but with these ‘profile players’ who want to manage I suspect they have egos to match their bank balances and they are all about proving themselves. After you finish playing what do you do? Shearer tried to be a manager but took Newcastle down and then got out. Lampard did ok and then got found out at Chelsea in his second year when he had to manage bigger players. It’s a bit like the top of the PL now. Chelsea have Tuchel, Liverpool have Klopp and Man City have Guardiola. Who do Man U have ...Solskjaer!! Underwhelming. But Gerrard has a big enough ego to think he can challenge those top 3. Im not sure he can or will. He thinks he’s more Zidane than Solskjaer perhaps. Whatever, he has a mediocre record at Rangers that was saved by an inept Celtic team last season. And I suspect the reason he’s gone to Villa lies somewhere in that area. |
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warehamgas
Predictions League
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Post by warehamgas on Nov 15, 2021 15:32:52 GMT
I suspect the reason he has taken over at Villa is to give himself a higher profile. He’s already said his ambition is to manage Liverpool and this job will be an important step towards doing so. Do well at Rangers, beating Ross County, Motherwell and Livingston will hardly set the world alight. Do well at Villa and by that I mean challenge for Europe and then qualify for Europe will put him in a good position. As has been said it won’t be financial reasons. Good luck to the bloke, but I still don't get it. Unless he thinks that the standard north of the border is so low that it's just wasting time staying there? But if that's the case, Villa is a big 'first' job. It's not going to end well. within 2 years he'll be gone and will surface again at somewhere like Birmingham or Forest. And of course what I should have added is that Villa have relatively new foreign owners who don’t give a fig about Steven Gerrard as a player, they may not even know him as a player. If he doesn’t deliver he’ll be out, Lampard had some credit with what he did at Chelsea. Gerrard has no credit which makes it a less than secure position. He’ll have to deliver. Good luck to him. |
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Post by alftupper on Nov 15, 2021 16:37:33 GMT
He stopped Celtic winning 10 in a row, so I`m greatful for that, but he wasn`t an unqualified success. Had one really good season domestically and in Europe. If he takes Morelos with him for 5 or 6 million, I`ll be happy. Be interesting to see how he gets on at Villa. Gatusso is available to take over at Ibrox. Be good to see him back there.
Agree with the stopping of the 10 year waltz, but not so with taking Morelos, he is a firework waiting to explode, As a Bluenose, that`s why I wouldn`t be unhappy to see him depart with Gerrard, if we can get a few million for him. Two seasons back, Rennes were prepared to pay top dollar for him. Shame we didn`t cash in.
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