Steven Gerrard has been sacked as Aston Villa manager after just 11 months.
The Premier League club released a statement late last night following a 3-0 loss to Fulham at Craven Cottage.
“Aston Villa Football Club can confirm that Head Coach Steven Gerrard has left the club with immediate effect.” CEO, Christian Purslow, the ex-managing director of Liverpool, continued. “The Board has come to this decision following a full evaluation of results and performances over the calendar year. We were clear when we appointed Steven that we set an objective of continuous improvement but that has not been achieved despite everybody’s best efforts and we believe the time is right to make these changes now.” Gary McAllister, Neil Critchley, Tom Culshaw, Jordan Milsom and Scott Mason have also departed since Gerrard’s exit.
The ex-Liverpool captain took over as manager in mid-November last year, succeeding Dean Smith. The job was seen as a step forward in Gerrard’s career after he previously won the Scottish Premier League with Rangers, breaking Celtic’s impeccable record. In his first season Gerrard guided Aston Villa to 14th place in the Premier League with mixed results but optimism from the fans, but this season has been a different story.
The midlands club are in 17th place in the league with nine points, just escaping the relegation zone on goals scored. Having won only two games this season and losing 6, they’ve endured their fair share of bad results, losing to Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, West Ham, Arsenal, Chelsea and now Fulham.
Gerrard had hoped for a turning point after clinching a point against Manchester City and showing signs of encouragement last weekend against Chelsea, but Gerrard’s tenure had run its course conceding three on Thursday night with ten men.
Gerrard’s former number two Michael Beale, left in the summer to pursue his own managerial ambitions at Queens Park Rangers. There has been speculation he was actually the brains behind the operation in Gerrard’s tactics, following him from Rangers to Aston Villa. Only this week he turned down the Wolves job to continue his work in West London.
As Villa enter a period of uncertainty, the bookies have begun tipping possible replacements; Mauricio Pochettino is the front-runner for the job. Gerrard, the long term dream ticket for Liverpool fans now faces an uncertain future.
