Managing Rangers the 'perfect rehearsal' for Steven Gerrard taking charge of Liverpool, says ex-Anfield star

Steve McManaman believes Steven Gerrard wouldn’t rule out taking charge of an English Premier League side that wasn’t Liverpool – but only if it didn’t harm his chances of one day managing at Anfield.

Steven Gerrard's dream job is Liverpool, according to a former Anfield star - but could the Rangers boss be tempted by another Premier League job?

Gerrard’s title success with Rangers has ramped up talk of a return to England, and the inevitable links with his former club. But McManaman, while believing the Ibrox boss wouldn’t necessarily rule out another job in the English top flight, suspects managing Liverpool is his dream.

He told HorseRacing.net: “It all depends on what Steven wants but if Jurgen Klopp wants to manage Liverpool for the next ten years and Steven gets an offer to manage a Tottenham or Man City, he might feel that’s more palatable than waiting for Liverpool.

“But I think his dream job would be to manage Liverpool and he wouldn’t want to spoil that. I think if he did have any offers he would always take that consideration about whether it stops him from getting the Liverpool job.

Steve McManaman believes managing Rangers is the perfect rehearsal for taking charge of Liverpool

"If he got the Manchester United job that would tarnish him getting the Liverpool job. His ideal job in the future would be him managing Liverpool – it just goes hand in glove, doesn’t it?”

McManaman also believes Gerrard’s experience managing Rangers is the “perfect rehearsal” for taking charge of the Reds.

He continued: “With the pressures of Rangers and Celtic and having 50,000 fans who live and breathe football in Glasgow, it’s just a perfect rehearsal for managing Liverpool isn’t it?

"Everyone goes on about experience and Liverpool being a big team but try and tell anyone in Glasgow that Rangers and Celtic aren’t big teams.

"Steven knows Liverpool inside out, he’s worked in the academy, he’s gone to Rangers and lived that life which is incredibly, incredibly intense – more intense, probably, than a lot of big Premier League teams – and in three years he’s hunted down Celtic, caught them up, and shot right past them.

"He does really well in Europe, had a great run last year; hasn’t been beaten this year. His record this year shouldn’t be talked down just because people have a disrespect for Scottish football.

“I think what he’s done this year is absolutely amazing.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.