STEVEN GERRARD EXCLUSIVE Just because you are a good player doesn’t mean you will be a good manager. So yes ...
S STEVEN GERRARD has gone from superstar to apprentice and admits he’s had long chats with Jurgen Klopp so he never hears t those dreaded words... “You’re Fired”.
From cleaning out the training ground toilets at Melwood as a youngster on the first rung, life has come full circle at Anfield for former K Kop and England skipper Gerrard.
For he admits he’s having to learn about the game all over again as he starts a journey he hopes will make him a future Liverpool manager.
Gerrard is big enough to acknowledge t the next step “scares” him. But for all the uncertainties of sailing into uncharted waters, Gerrard is certain taking a role in Liverpool’s academy in instead of a high-profile manager’s job is the smartest move.
Offers
“I’ve put the cones out before and I’ve pumped up the balls. I even used to clean the staff toilets when our goalkeeping coach Joe Corrigan was in there! So starting at the bottom is no problem,”p laughs Gerrard.
“The name on the back of your shirt isi the problem,” he adds. “Because people get excited at the end of their c career. Not necessarily the players, but other people who want to put o opportunities in front of you.
“I’ve had those offers already and some are hard to turn down. Sometimes you don’t get time to breathe, think or speak to people that will give you the right advice.
“I was lucky to have time in LA to s speak to my family and still have that d dialogue with Liverpool.
“You have to work out what is best f for me now, how I will improve and get close to being good enough to be at the top, because that’s the aim and a ambition.
“I have seen it so many times where people fail because they take the wrong job at the start.
“I don’t want to name any names, that would be disrespectful, but for me there is no rush. If it takes me five or 10 years, I don’t care because, at the moment, I’m not ready for the jobs I would ultimately want.
“If you go in and take the wrong opportunity at the wrong time on reputation, sentiment or emotion you could find it hard getting to the top.
“To be a good player you have to do an apprenticeship and I don’t see management as being much different.”
Before Gerrard can even think about following in the footsteps of Liverpool’s famous bosses like Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Kenny Dalglish, he knows he has a long way to go.
“I have stages to do before I can even enter the boot room. I need to finish my badges and at the same time I need many hours of putting on sessions under my belt,” says Gerrard, who will combine coaching with his role as a BT pundit.
“In the beginning I’ll be working with players between the ages of 16 and 23, so that will involve three age groups and I’m going to shadow all the managers and bounce off all three of them.
“The plan is to eventually take a team myself. I’m not sure when that will be. We will have to see how quickly I can be comfortable with it.
“I can only shadow someone for so long because there is only so much you can learn before you have a go yourself and see whether you sink or swim.
“So I need to eventually manage a team. I need to be able to pick a team, make subs, choose formations, manage players collectively and one on one. I need to get a feel for how management works.
“And if I am lucky enough to keep bouncing off Klopp as I have been doing recently then I hope to be in a better place in six to 12 months’ time.” Klopp has become a key influence for Gerrard who says: “I had some very interesting chats with Jurgen and I can’t really put into words how good he was and the advice he gave me. “They were really important for the decisions I was going to make. You look at someone like Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid and there are a lot of examples where people do their apprenticeship.
Brutal
“They learn and are patient. Doing it the way I’ve chosen doesn’t mean you are going to be great as well.
“But the way management and coaching has become so brutal it would be very stupid and immature to go in when you are not ready.
“And just because you are a good player doesn’t mean you are going to be great at management and coaching because it’s a completely different game.
“So yes, it does scare me but I suppose it scares everyone. It’s just the way the game is and the way it’s gone.
“The pressure is getting bigger and bigger on coaches and managers and whether it’s unfair or not there’s not a lot anyone can do about it.”