I could get sacked after five games and it puts me off for life.. or I might win the title and it sets me up for the next 20 years
Liverpool legend opens his heart on hopes and fears as he prepares to launch coaching career
STEVEN GERRARD said it himself when he assessed the risk he may soon take on with a managerial baptism of fire at Rangers.
He said: “I could get a firstteam job and get sacked after four or five games. It might put me off for life.
“Or I might take my first job and win a league and that might set me up for the next 10 or 20 years. I can’t predict the future. All I can do is make myself as prepared as I can be for whatever roles I take down the line.”
Five months on since speaking those words, they have never sounded more important as Scottish football waits for confirmation the Liverpool legend has agreed to make that first leap of faith at Ibrox. Because as much as the appointment of an untried youth coach as Gers manager can be considered an almighty risk for both parties, Gerrard has already shown the savvy to prepare himself as best he can. He made the mature decision to learn the basics of his trade from Jurgen Klopp as a coach at Liverpool’s youth academy 13 months ago. It must have been tempting to grab the first offer from clubs like MK Dons, too dazzled by the glint of
his Champions League medal and 114 England caps to consider his zero managerial experience. An accusation levelled at Rangers even now.
But instead of throwing himself head first into management Gerrard wisely waited and studied and learned. Now, a year on this fledgling coach appears to feel ready to spread his wings.
And judging by an interview with the Guardian in December, he’ll go in it better prepared for that year under the tutelage of Klopp at Anfield.
Gerrard said: “If you come out of the game and automatically think you’re going to be a top coach because of the name on your back or the career you’ve had you’re taking big risks.
“You’re cutting a lot of corners
You’re out of your comfort zone and then all eyes and responsibility are on you to coach a large group of men
and a lot of learning and growing and evolving. I didn’t want to take a job and find I wasn’t ready, out of my depth, then have a bad experience that puts me off coaching.
“If I have a bad experience and it goes wrong, if I’m more qualified and ready then I’ll be willing to accept it more.
“First and foremost it’s very different from playing, especially at the beginning. You have an anxiousness about you. You’re out of your comfort zone and all eyes and responsibility are on you to coach a large group of men, rather than just being one player in a team.
“As a player I could switch off when the game was done. That is very difficult as a coach.
“Now after a game I’m thinking what went well, what didn’t go well, what individuals do I need to work on this week, who do I need to praise, who do I need to speak to, who’s been naughty at school?”
“Jurgen’s advice when I came back was, ‘I only want you to shadow me for a short time because you need to have a couple of years of making mistakes, of picking your own team, of deciding tactics.
“‘You need to find your philosophy, a way of playing.
“‘You need to deal with individual problems, to praise individuals, help others. You need to feel disappointment and setbacks and then after a couple of years you’ll know if this gig is for you’. He painted a real picture of how it is.”
Now it seems Gerrard will soon find out whether this management business is indeed for him.
With so much uncertainty surrounding Rangers it’s impossible to predict how Gerrard will fare.
But his words, spoken just before Christmas, seem uncannily prophetic now as he mapped out when he might feel ready to make that big jump into the deep end with his eyes wide open.
He said: “I’m not sitting here thinking I’ve done it for five months so bring the job interviews on.
“In six months or a year or two years’ time there might be an opportunity where I think I’m much better prepared than I was five months ago.
“The MK Dons job, for example – which came up just after I had finished playing – was like a smack in the face. There was no way I was ready to lead a club or a team. Am I closer to that now? Of course.
“For the last five months I’ve felt all the highs and lows and experienced all the daily stuff that managers deal with albeit at youth-team level.
“It will definitely prepare me for wherever I end up.
“It’s not scaring me or putting me off. I know the further I go there is more scrutiny, more attention, more opinions, more criticism, more praise. I get all that.
“For me it was important to get a taste of it away from the cameras and experience all these things before you go into the madness.”
Welcome to the asylum that is Scottish football.