Steven Gerrard taught Jermain Defoe a thing or two about management when he asked him to pick the team to face Real Madrid in a friendly, the former Ibrox striker has revealed.
Defoe is keen to move into management after hanging up his boots last year having watched many of his former England teammates such as Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard make the step with mixed fortunes. He worked under Gerrard as a player-coach at Rangers and cut his teeth on the coaching side of things before leaving to play for Sunderland after Gio van Bronckhorst was brought in to replace him.
Defoe, 40, is now fully retired and focused on coaching and works in the Spurs youth set-up under Yaya Toure after calling it a day on his playing career almost 12 months ago. He is eager to work his way up the coaching ranks to become a manager in future, but he is fully aware of the downsides to a job he hopes will be second only to playing.
And Defoe admits Rangers’ 2-1 victory over Real Madrid in a July 2021 friendly to mark the club’s 150th anniversary was an eye-opener. Speaking to the BBC ahead of his Radio 5 Live podcast, Jermain Defoe: Outside The Box, he said: “If a manager gets sacked, sometimes you have a guilty conscience, like ‘it's not his fault."
“You see him putting in the work during the week, there’s a game-plan and the players are the ones who’ve got to go and execute it. If you don’t and then the manager gets sacked, I realise that’s a part of it.
“There was one occasion (at Rangers), I think it was against Real Madrid, pre-season. I wasn’t involved, so Stevie (Gerrard) told me to pick the team. I didn’t know who to put on the bench, because of the quality in the squad. Stevie said to me, ‘this is what I have to deal with every weekend!’.
“If you’re leaving players out, it’s a difficult conversation, but that’s the stuff you have to do. I wouldn’t say I’m looking forward to that stuff, but it’s part and parcel.”
The England team-mates Defoe references in his desire to move into the dugout - Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney - have all endured struggles in management, with Lampard following Gerrard in being sacked from an English Premier League club when he was axed by Everton just a fortnight ago.
He explained: “I’ve seen players like Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard go on to become managers. That makes me want it even more. You’re going to get sacked at some point. That’s the job.”
And he added: “I love football. It’s as simple as that. I’ve been obsessed with the game since day one and nothing’s changed. I retired last year at 39 and I still had the same feeling that I had when I was a kid going out for a game.
“Of course, coaching and managing are completely different, but I think that’s the nearest thing you get to playing. You still lace your boots up, you’re still out there with the boys.”
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