Steven Gerrard: The serious ambition of Aston Villa Head Coach

Steven Gerrard has always wanted more.

As an Under-17 playing for Liverpool’s Under-19s, he wanted to be in the Liverpool first team, so he set his sights on Jamie Redknapp and captain Paul Ince and at the first opportunity he seized the moment.

“His first session he went flying into Paul Ince in the first five minutes of a game at Melwood and smashed him up in the air,” Redknapp recalled. “Luckily for me, we were on the same side. I remember passing the ball to him and he turned and hit this pass - and the flight of the ball and the noise as he made contact with it were something different - and I thought immediately, ‘We’ve got a special one here.’”

So did Gerard Houllier.

“He fitted in straight away,” revealed Houllier, who became more than a manager for the rash, young midfielder, and for the boss Gerrard matured into the perfect leader, the soul of the team. “Stevie was a leader on and off the pitch, taking responsibility, shouting at his teammates, setting the highest standards and demanding the same from those around him. He worked and sacrificed and suffered and stayed humble and was driven throughout his career by an almost insatiable desire to win. He always wanted to win.”

Even after becoming Liverpool captain at 23, winning a treble of League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup in the 2000-01 season and the Champions League four years later he wanted more, the ultimate fulfilment of winning the Premier League. But as a player he remained one medal shy of realising his dream.

The slip at Anfield which allowed Chelsea’s Demba Ba to score and killed Liverpool’s hopes of the title in the 2013-14 season helped drive the machine that was Rangers’ team of ‘Invincibles’ last season when they romped to the Scottish Premiership title with 32 wins, six draws, 26 clean sheets in 38 games and only 13 goals conceded, surpassing the 100-points mark and crushing Celtic’s quest for 10-in-a-row.

And it will continue to provide fuel for the new Villa manager.

The doubters, he will know, remain sceptical of his achievements in the crucible of Scotland’s Old Firm. The old two-horse race accusation exacerbated by Celtic, in sight of the Holy Grail, mutating into Devon Loch.

“With outstanding backing from Dave King in terms of paying for the recruitment in his early days, he received god-like status amongst supporters at Ibrox for winning one trophy out of nine,” Chris Sutton, the former Celtic striker, suggested. “No trophy out of the other eight available simply wasn’t good enough.”

He is guaranteed further financial backing at Villa where owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens have overseen a net spend of more than £205.11million in the transfer market since 2019.

Like his ambitious new bosses, Gerrard will want more than the club’s current predicament following five successive losses. Competing for the European places and nurturing the talent being produced by the academy will be high on his list of priorities.

“He has a completely different task at Aston Villa than he had at Rangers and he will understand what the club stands for and what the targets are,” said Stiliyan Petrov, the former Villa captain. “Since Jack Grealish left for Manchester City in the summer, the team hasn’t played with confidence. A lot of the new players are still trying to adapt to the team and to their new environment. They have still to find their form.

“But I believe Steven Gerrard and his coaching staff will be able to bring the best out of the likes of Leon Bailey, Emiliano Buendia and Danny Ings. From his days as a player, he has been a captain, a leader, a real force of nature and he has pushed those around him to push always to be the best. That drive and mentality can have a very positive impact at Villa, I believe.”

Houllier, who remained in close contact with Gerrard until he passed away in December 2020, always believed that the player he made his captain had the qualities to be a top manager.

“Of all his attributes - his work ethic, his intelligence and strength of personality, his determination and drive and ambition to be the best, always wanting more - it is his humility and authenticity that people should never overlook,” Houllier said. “Stevie was always about the team, he gave everything for the team, he always stayed grounded and humble and that’s why people followed him. If you want to know what an authentic leader is all about, look no further than Steven Gerrard.”

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