Being a brilliant football player doesn’t always guarantee that a long and successful career in management will follow.
Indeed, some of the most successful managers weren’t necessarily great players in their day.
Jurgen Klopp even admitted on JD’s In The Duffle Bag podcast cited by The Sun, that he was a pretty average player whilst on the books at Mainz.
Sir Alex Ferguson will likely be the first to say that he too had an unremarkable playing career in Scotland, and yet he went on to become the most successful manager Manchester United have ever had.
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Aston Villa manager, Steven Gerrard, looks as though he could be one to break the mould.
An unbelievable talent as a player, and one who was well deserving of the England honours that came his way, though he didn’t win a league title as a player he did everything but in Liverpool’s colours.
Who can forget the Gerrard FA Cup final against West Ham in 2006, by way of example.
Though his Villa side lost on his return to Anfield on Saturday, it was clear from the way in which they had set up, and hustled and harried their opponents, that they were already a team in their manager’s own image.
??”He’s got all of the personality and character ingredients that Liverpool should always expect from a manager – a winner, ruthless.”@StanCollymore on Steven Gerrard as a potential #LFC boss ? pic.twitter.com/CYQ6L4Vpsj
— Empire of the Kop (@empireofthekop) December 12, 2021
Given how well Gerrard did at Rangers, guiding them to a barely believable unbeaten league season, it’s no wonder that another Liverpool old boy, Stan Collymore, is tipping him for a crack at the Reds hot-seat as and when the time is right in the future.