Ian Rush: Villa Too Big An Opportunity For Gerrard To Turn Down

Steven Gerrard has been appointed as the new manager of Aston Villa and I’m thrilled to see a Liverpool legend back in Premier League football.

It’s a big opportunity for him after doing a great job at Rangers. Not every young manager gets the chance to work in the Premier League so you have to take your chance when it comes.

Aston Villa are a great club and for Stevie it’s a chance to prove himself in the best league in the world. It’s not going to be easy, but I think he knows that, although he’ll be excited by this new challenge.

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All through his Liverpool and England career Gerrard was being compared to Frank Lampard and not much has changed at managerial level either, with many pundits doubting Gerrard’s ability to manage in the Premier League so soon after Lampard ended up getting sacked by Chelsea.

I don’t think Lampard did too badly at Chelsea, to be honest. I think Tuchel has done exceptionally well since taking over and that hasn’t reflected well on the work that Lampard did.

But Aston Villa will be a very different challenge to Chelsea, where they expect to be challenging for the Premier League title and the Champions League, that’s the standards they’ve come to expect.

At Villa, at the moment, the challenge is to stay in the Premier League and build from there, and maybe qualify for Europe within two or three years.

Gerrard Management Style

Those who don’t pay much attention to Scottish football will be keen to see what sort of managerial style Gerrard brings to the table when he gets going with Villa.

I think he’s a very good manager and obviously he has the very experienced Gary McAllister next to him who is a big help. I speak to both Stevie and Gary Mac regularly and I know Stevie is very demanding of his players, just like he was as a captain.

A lot of his managerial traits are similar to the type of player he was actually, he has that never-say-die attitude and he won’t be happy unless Aston Villa are winning games, so I think he’ll find a way to get the best out of those players.

They’ve lost their main player – Jack Grealish – so they were always going to struggle a little bit this term, but it’s now a chance for Stevie and his backroom team to change things up like he did at Rangers.

Liverpool Talk

I know a lot of people view it as a stepping stone towards eventually replacing Jurgen Klopp, but at the end of the day Liverpool is one of the biggest clubs in the world and Stevie spent pretty much his whole career there, so it’s only natural that he would one day hope to manage the club.

But at the moment I really don’t think that will be in his mind at all, he’ll be focussing on doing his best for Aston Villa, see how he gets on and take it from there.

We’ve seen club legends take over at Liverpool at the past and it has been great but there have been times when it hasn’t quite worked out too, but it’s a risk you have to take if the opportunity comes along. Make no mistake though, Stevie will be 100 per cent focussed on Villa.

Having said that, it’s also a risk taking the Villa job because if it doesn’t work out, it harms his chances of getting the Liverpool job down the line. If it doesn’t go well and he ends up out of a job, then I think it would be best for him to jump straight back in to another job because if you stay out of the game for a while you get forgotten about very quickly.

Stevie can’t afford to be thinking too far ahead though, he’s got to have no regrets about the path he takes in his managerial career and this is no doubt a good opportunity to improve his ability as a manager at the highest level.

Brendan Rodgers Comparison

In Scotland, it’s usually going to be either Celtic or Rangers who win the league and it can get pretty dull, but Brendan Rodgers done an excellent job at Celtic and Leicester recognised that and now he’s once again hot property in the Premier League.

Stevie has done something similar, taking over at Rangers and stopping Celtic from winning 10 in a row was an amazing achievement and he leaves them in a position where they’re top dogs again in Scotland and that has been a long time coming.

Rodgers has since done a fantastic job at Leicester and I think Stevie should take comfort from that – if Rodgers can succeed at Leicester, why can’t Stevie succeed at Aston Villa?

Bale The Centurian

Gareth Bale is set to win his 100th cap for Wales against Belarus on Saturday but, more importantly, this is a huge game for Welsh football.

For anyone to reach 100 caps in international football is an amazing achievement but what is particularly impressive about Bale’s 100th cap is that he’s a forward player, and only the very best forwards reach three figures.

We normally see goalkeepers and full-backs reach 100 caps but it’s rare to see your main goalscorer make it that far because they tend to get replaced by younger, quicker alternatives.

But Bale has shown incredible commitment to Wales over the years and his desire to keep playing has never waned, he always seems to be able to make himself available for Wales when the international breaks come around and you have to admire his drive.

He is a Welsh phenomenon, our record goalscorer and he’s still very much a vital player, we’ll really need him over these next two games.

Wales’ World Cup Hopes

Everyone expects us to beat Belarus but it will be a tough game. If we can get a win and then hold Belgium to a draw on Tuesday, that would be enough to qualify for the playoffs. We’ll just have to take it one game at a time.

Belgium should be in a position where they can rest several key players so that might work in Wales’ favour and if things don’t work out we also have the Nations League group win to fall back on.

It would be massive for Wales to qualify for a World Cup. The two Euros campaigns were amazing and now the next step is the World Cup, which would be the icing on the cake for a golden era for Welsh football.

Qatar 2022 will probably be Bale’s last chance to play at a World Cup, maybe even Aaron Ramsey’s too, so they will be more determined than anyone to get Wales over the line.

The only real regret of my career was not qualifying for a major tournament with Wales. We always had a strong squad but we never got the rub of the green with the qualifiers, always having the likes of Germany or Holland standing in our way, and often only one team qualified from the groups back then too.

We performed well in qualifying campaigns but just never had enough to overcome the biggest nations. I was lucky enough to have had a really successful club career but I’ve spoken to others in the same boat, like Ryan Giggs and Mark Hughes, and we all feel the same sense of regret that we were never able to play at a tournament like the Euros or the World Cup.

Ramsey’s Juve Days Numbered

I spent a season with Juventus as a player so I’ve always kept an eye on the progress of my fellow Welshman Aaron Ramsey in Italy.

I know Aaron well and he hasn’t had any issues settling in Turin, I just think Juventus play him out of position so it hasn’t quite happened for him there. When he plays for Wales he plays in his natural position and that’s why we see him scoring goals.

At Juventus, they play him in a defensive midfield role, which isn’t getting the best out of him in my opinion. If you’re not happy, you’re not likely to produce your best football. He’s trying his best, like a typical Welshman, but it’s always going to be difficult when you’re not playing in your best position.

Personally, I’d like to see him at Newcastle. He’d improve their squad a lot and even though I’m not fond of January transfers I’d like to see him move in the next window to get his game time up in 2022 ahead of the World Cup, if Wales qualify of course.

If we finish second in the group and go into the qualifiers, we need Bale and Ramsey fully match fit, so a move for Ramsey in January could benefit Wales.

If he stays at Juventus, I’d be a bit worried about the amount of playing time he’s getting in a World Cup year. So for that reason it’d be great to see him back in the Premier League in January, but if it has to wait until the end of the season then so be it.

New Newcastle boss Eddie Howe would love a player like Ramsey I reckon. At Bournemouth he built a very good attacking team and Ramsey would fit his style down to a tee.

It’s a difficult job for Howe but he has that Bournemouth experience so even if Newcastle end up going down he has brought Bournemouth up from the Football League in the past so they’d still be in good hands.

Cristiano Ronaldo: The Manager?

So much is Cristiano Ronaldo the main man about Old Trafford, there’s been a bit of talk about him becoming the next manager of Manchester United.

I see it as paper talk and nothing more but when I look at Ronaldo I do see him as a leader, but unless he has Sir Alex Ferguson alongside him I don’t see him managing Manchester United any time soon!

We kind of got a glimpse of Ronaldo as a manager when Portugal won the Euros in 2016, when he had to go off injured. He was so passionate on the touchline, barking orders and motivating the team, and maybe we saw the makings of a manager there.

We know he’s very demanding which you need to be as a manager, and he does like to have control of things too, but to manage a big club like Manchester United you need proper managerial experience and that’s why I don’t buy into the story of him replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.