Rangers' Steven Gerrard to Aston Villa? New favourite, club prepared to cough up, team-mate has say

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard is now the favourite to become the new Aston Villa manager.
Steven Gerrard is one of the leading candidates to be the new Aston Villa manager.Steven Gerrard is one of the leading candidates to be the new Aston Villa manager.
Steven Gerrard is one of the leading candidates to be the new Aston Villa manager.

The English Premier League club dismissed Dean Smith on Sunday following a poor run of form and while Gerrard was deemed as one of the contenders yesterday, most bookmakers now have him the odds-on favourite to take over at the Birmingham club.

Belgium manager Roberto Martinez, who has previous experience of managing in England’s top flight with Everton and Wigan, is also understood to be on the radar of Aston Villa’s board.

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Headed by chief executive Christian Purslow, the Villa hierarchy are not expected to be in a major rush to find a successor to Smith and are prepared to pay compensation – something they would have to do for Gerrard.

John Terry, who is a former assistant coach of the club, former Roma manager Paulo Fonseca, Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand and Frank Lampard are among the other candidates for the job.

Villa have struggled in 2021, avoiding relegation on the last day of the season. They sold talisman Jack Grealish for £100 million to Manchester City in the summer and while trying to replace the England internationalist with Emi Buendia, Leon Bailey and Danny Ings, they are on a bad run of form, having lost their past five matches and sitting 16th in the table.

Gerrard guided Rangers to the cinch Premiership title last season with an unbeaten campaign and while he was linked with the Newcastle job last month, there appears to be more traction surrounding his link to the Villains, who have current Scotland midfielder John McGinn in their ranks.

Jamie Carragher, a former team-mate of Gerrard at Liverpool, reckons the Aston Villa job would be a good fit for the 41-year-old.

Carragher said: "I think Aston Villa as a club would be a great decision for Steven Gerrard, but the situation he's in right now is that he took the title against Celtic last season and he's in a great position to win it again.

"I think in a perfect world you would want to stay with Rangers until the end of the season and come away with two titles."