What Steven Gerrard will have to do to become Liverpool manager
Steven Gerrard has revealed that he harbours genuine ambitions of managing Liverpool, with the midfielder ready to start the process of getting his coaching badges. While romantic images of the Boot Room and, in particular, the seamless transition from player to manager undergone by Kenny Dalglish spring to mind, the reality in the modern era is that if Gerrard really wants to manage a club like Liverpool, he will first need to seek pastures new.
For proof, we need only look at some of Europe’s top managers today, who were once elite players like Gerrard, yet still had to serve a managerial apprenticeship before landing coveted jobs…
Carlo Ancelotti is one of the few managers in the world capable of crossing national boundaries and winning major prizes at virtually every club he sets foot in. As a player, he was perhaps best known as a classy midfielder in the great Milan side of the late '80s and early '90s, but it wasn’t just a case of hanging up his boots then taking the hot seat with the Rossoneri. After retiring, Ancelotti penned a thesis entitled ‘The future of football: More dynamic’, as part of his education at the Italian FA's coaching centre, Coverciano. His first senior coaching job was with Italian second division side Reggiana in 1995; Ancelotti guided them to top flight promotion and was soon offered the Parma job as a result. There began a period of steady progress for the coach, who led Parma to a best ever second place finish in Serie A, but was unable to land any silver. His work proved impressive enough for the mighty Juventus to come calling, though, in 1999 and a first trophy duly arrived, albeit in the shape of the humble Intertoto Cup. Ancelotti parted company with the Turin club in 2001, when he was sacked by Juventus despite still being in contention for the title. Again, he had done enough to interest another of Italy's giants, rejoining former club Milan as manager. Back at the San Siro, the trophies finally began to flow.
The former midfielder turned the Rossoneri around after a disappointing spell, winning the Champions League in 2003 as well as the Coppa Italia and went on to build upon that success with a Serie A title and another Champions League trophy. A move to Chelsea in 2009 showed his winning touch was intact, with a league and cup double in his first season, while most recently, at PSG, he managed to win Ligue 1, as well as guide the Parisians to an impressive quarter-final place in the Champions League during their first appearance in the competition since rejuvenating their squad.
Looking back at his trajectory as a manager, it is clear that one of the keys to Ancelotti’s success has been a step-by-step process of learning, starting from achieving promotion to the top flight, then taking a team to an unlikely finish, before winning a first minor trophy, then finally delivering the goods at top clubs.
He isn’t alone in that regard, either, though not all apprenticeships are quite as drawn out. Ancelotti’s successor at PSG, Laurent Blanc, enjoyed huge success as a player, winning the French league, Cup Winners’ Cup, Premier League, World Cup and European Championships to name just a few of his honours on the pitch, but it wasn’t a case of jumping straight to the top as a manager, despite a personal desire to do so.
Upon deciding to become a coach, Blanc was desperate to get as big a job as possible for his first gig, but notably was rejected by Marseille, before eventually having to settle for Bordeaux in 2007. The club from the south west of France were hardly a powerhouse when he took charge, failing to win the league since 1999 and with a middling most recent league finish of sixth.
Blanc steadily improved their performances, finishing second in his first season in charge, but still seven points behind winners Lyon. The following season, he won his first trophy, netting the Ligue 1 title, but his team had to wait until the final day of the season to do so.
Blanc’s run with Bordeaux earned him the right to coach the side he had achieved the most success with as a player, the French national team. With Les Bleus it wasn’t all plain sailing, however. The coach inherited a messy France set-up full of inflated egos and warring factions, but managed to shape them into a team that topped their Euro 2012 qualifying group.
At the tournament, he led them to the quarter-finals, before an exit at the hands of eventual winners Spain. Blanc left his position at the end of the summer, but retained sufficient credit for his performances despite a difficult working situation, and as such, was handed the PSG job in June of this year, his highest profile club job to date.
Though not as travelled as Carlo Ancelotti, Blanc proved himself at Bordeaux by claiming the title as underdogs, before arresting the decline of a French national team in disarray.
Those that don’t agree with the need to travel and learn as a coach will point to Pep Guardiola as an example of someone who stepped straight into top level success as a coach, yet even then, there is more than meets the eye.
Notably, as a player, Guardiola left Barcelona and travelled extensively, playing in Italy, Qatar and Mexico before hanging up his boots. It was with Dorados de Sinaloa in Mexico that he really began to coach, having already undertaken several courses, and he learned much of his practical managing experience there under established coach Juanma Lillo.
There, Guardiola would often spend spells on the touchline barking out instructions and tactics to his team mates while Lillo stayed seated on the bench. Famously, he also took time to travel to Argentina, visiting Marcelo Bielsa to pick his brain on all things tactics, before finally getting his first full time job as a coach, in charge of Barcelona’s B team in the Spanish third division.
Guardiola got Barca B promoted to the second division in stylish fashion, and as a result, then president Joan Laporta took a chance on the young coach by handing him the first team job. Like Blanc with France however, Guardiola hardly inherited a team in ideal circumstances, with players like Ronaldinho and Deco underperforming, under-training and all but calling the shots behind the scenes.
It was only once he rooted them out and restructured the power-base in the team as well as their way of playing that Barcelona were prepared for the unrivalled success that followed, and the coach himself has admitted that his time learning abroad was vital in shaping his ideas. It was hardly a case of jumping straight from Barcelona legend as a player, to Barcelona first team coach, therefore.
What the above shows is that, these days, top players no longer instantly become top managers, as was the case with someone like Kenny Dalglish. Pep Guardiola, Laurent Blanc and Carlo Ancelotti have all, in different ways, had to serve apprenticeships before achieving success at the highest level, and if Steven Gerrard wants to become a successful manager, let alone successful Liverpool manager, he will likely have to do the same.
That may be difficult for a one club man like Gerrard, but it could prove vital in his ambitions.
Liverpool supporters, do you agree? Will Gerrard have to look beyond Liverpool before he's ready for a top job like the one at Anfield? Let us know below...