Rio Ferdinand slams Liverpool over treatment of Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard

Rio Ferdinand has hit out at Liverpool for their treatment of Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard.

The former Manchester United centre half believes Gerrard’s former club showed a lack of loyalty to their captain during the end of his playing career at Anfield.

Gerrard left Liverpool in 2015 after he fell out of the starting line-up under Brendan Rodgers.

The Villa boss had played over 700 games for his hometown club, before leaving the Reds on a free transfer and moving to MLS where he joined LA Galaxy during the twilight of his career.

Gerrard did return to Liverpool in 2017 when he was appointed youth coach at Liverpool, before heading to Glasgow for the Rangers job.

What did Ferdinand say?

Speaking on his Vibe with FIVE podcast (via Metro) Ferdinand said he feels the Merseyside club should have offered Gerrard a new deal instead of letting him leave on a free.

He said: “Let’s look at the Steven Gerrard case, he’s been loyal to them.

“He had obscene offers probably from Chelsea, they courted him, they tried every which way they could through players, and what not trying to get him and unsettle him.

“He became unsettled, flirted with the idea a little bit, but actually, loyalty probably made him stay at Liverpool. Whatever happened, he was courted by Chelsea. He decides to stay, and then he gets towards the end of his career and the club don’t want to give him a new deal.

He added: “Bearing in mind [he’s] arguably the club’s best-ever player, been apart of iconic moments at the football club and would have had so much to offer young players staying there from a culture, a mentality and somebody they can look at and identify as a local lad, but they let him go to LA Galaxy.

“There was the ability for him to stay there as a player-coach and groom him into being a coach in the system that they’ve got or a manager, but they chose to do something totally different and allowed him to go to LA Galaxy.

“So when you talk about loyalty maybe if the club were being shown an element of loyalty there they might have gone, you know what, because of that loyalty he’s showing us, we’re going to give him a bit back at the end of his career.”

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