Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard is frequently linked with succeeding Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager.
But the Anfield legend has lots to prove in the next two years if he wants to get the Liverpool hot-seat, according to Stan Collymore, who reckons he has urgent problems to solve at Villa Park. Gerrard is currently in his second job in management having led Rangers to the SPL title, their first for a decade, last term. He took over at Villa in November on a three-and-a-half-year deal, and has guided them to comfortable mid-table safety this season - but is on a three-game losing streak.
Gerrard himself has dismissed talk of a quick return to Anfield, believing Klopp will keep building his trophy-winning dynasty, and shows no sign of wanting to leave. In December Gerrard reacted to being linked with the club he played for with such distinction by saying: “The Liverpool fans don't want me to be the manager of Liverpool Football Club. They want Jurgen Klopp to continue to be the Liverpool manager, and I'm totally with all of them. We shouldn't talk about this, we have one of the best managers leading our club at the minute.”
And Klopp himself was asked the question of Gerrard’s suitability and was positive saying he would “definitely” become the Anfield chief one day. Klopp added: “I think it will definitely happen. And good for everybody! When is the right moment to take the job? Not to say that he’s not able to do it, but how long you want to do it. Is it the last job you do? The second job, third job you do?”
Now former Anfield striker Collymore has entered the debate over the 41-year-old’s long-term career plan. Collymore reckons Gerrard will be in pole position to succeed Klopp if he can get Villa into Europe and build a team that is competing. But if he can’t, the consequences will be damaging for his chances - because he won't have done any better than sacked Dean Smith.
Collymore wrote in his Daily Mirror column: “If Steven Gerrard can get Aston Villa to where he wants them to be this season then I wouldn’t be surprised if in a year or two he hadn’t put together a team capable of competing for Europe. But, if he can’t, then questions will be asked about whether he has done any better than Dean Smith and, at the moment, I don’t think he has.
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“I don’t think the players look comfortable in the system and the fact he said himself that Villa weren’t at the races against Wolves for 70 minutes on Saturday will worry him. It makes me wonder if some of the players who were in awe of him when he arrived aren’t now responding to his style in quite the same way.
"And I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that one or two who were playing under Smith but aren’t under Gerrard are starting to be a bit mardy around the camp. That’s fine but if two becomes four or five, and then six or seven, it can become an issue.
“So now I’m looking to see how the players who did well under Smith respond to what Gerrard is saying because if it was Villa’s former manager who’d suffered six defeats in nine games, people would be calling for him to be sacked. That’s not the case yet given Gerrard is still new, but if this sort of run is happening in November then he could well be looking for a new managerial home - and it won’t be at Anfield.”
