‘Hopefully this stops!’ - Liverpool reaction to Steven Gerrard Aston Villa sacking

Liverpool supporters have given contrasting reactions to the news Anfield legend Steven Gerrard has been sacked by Premier League rivals Aston Villa.

The former England midfielder enjoyed a promising start to his managerial career after leaving a coaching role in the Reds academy setup to take over at Scottish giants Rangers during the summer of 2018.  After gradually strengthening his squad over the coming years, Gerrard delivered a first Scottish Premier League title in a decade when they ended the 2021/22 season 25 points ahead of bitter rivals Celtic after going unbeaten during the campaign.

Gerrard’s progress at Ibrox attracted interest from several Premier League clubs and he was heavily linked with a move to Newcastle United when Steve Bruce parted company with the Magpies last October.  But it was Aston Villa that handed Gerrard his first opportunity to manage in the top flight when he was named as successor to Dean Smith just under a year ago.

After finishing last season in 14th place, there were high hopes Gerrard could lead Villa to a much-improved campaign and he was heavily backed by the club’s owners after splashing out over £60m on the likes of former Liverpool forward Philippe Coutinho and Sevilla defender Diego Carlos.  Performances have not matched expectations and Thursday night’s 3-0 defeat at Fulham left meant only goal difference is keeping Villa outside of the Premier League relegation zone.

The Villans confirmed they had parted company with Gerrard less than two hours after the defeat at Craven Cottage with a short statement on the club website.  It read: Aston Villa Football Club can confirm that Head Coach Steven Gerrard has left the club with immediate effect.  A club spokesman said: “We would like to thank Steven for his hard work and commitment and wish him well for the future.”

Liverpool supporters have been giving their reaction to the news on social media - and not all of them were supportive of the Anfield icon.

Twitter user @LFCLaurie believes Gerrard’s underwhelming performance during his Villa reign means he should not be considered as a possible successor to Jurgen Klopp, should the German boss depart from his role at Anfield in the future.  He tweeted: “I love Steven Gerrard and always will, but hopefully this stops people ever mentioning him for the Liverpool job.  He’s not that calibre of manager and never will be and he should never be allowed to ruin his legacy here.”

@TheAnfieldTalk also cast doubt over Gerrard’s ability to manage at the top level at this point in time, saying: “Gerrard definitely on his way out at Villa. He should take some time out of the game but do people think he’d be best carrying on learning his trade back at Liverpool as a coach when he does return? Not sure he’s ready for top level management.”

However, @James79Rigby was rather more supportive, saying: “What ever happens to my all time favourite player Steven Gerrard you are our Liverpool Legend.”  @Kloppista_LFC made a bold prediction about his successor and Villa’s hopes of staying in the Premier League by tweeting: “They’ll go through a honeymoon period with the new manager, claim they were right about Gerrard, then things will go wrong and they’ll be fighting to stay up and inevitably get saved by Gerrard’s key signings Kamara and Carlos being back fit.”

And @Nick_Amies tipped one of Gerrard’s former Anfield team-mates to be a preferred choice to one day take over as Reds boss: “I’d put Xabi Alonso above Gerrard now if I had to pick an ex-player to take over at Anfield one day. And even that is quite unlikely. This should really be the end of all the talk about Stevie taking over at LFC.”