Exclusive: Steven Gerrard won’t be on the Aston Villa hot seat straight away says Dan Bardell
We’re delighted to welcome The Athletic’s Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Steven Gerrard will get time at Aston Villa despite a summer transfer window that has raised expectations around the club, Dan Bardell believes.
The arrival of Champions League calibre signings Diego Carlos and Boubacar Kamara, as well as turning Philippe Coutinho’s loan move into a permanent deal, has understandably raised the bar at Villa Park, after a 14th-placed finish in the 2021/22 season.
But although the previous campaign fizzled out on a run of disappointing results, Bardell doesn’t believe the pressure will be on the manager immediately if there are some poor early games because his record at the club as a whole has been positive so far.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News he said: “I always think you’ve got to give a manager a bit of time anyway. I always thought Dean Smith deserved time, and I think he got it to a large extent.
“I’d like to give to Gerrard because they’ve put so much into him and has obviously got that relationship with [Christian] Purslow, which I think will play a part.
“I don’t think he’ll be under massive pressure, and actually on the face of it when he first came in last year results were very good, then hit a bit of a stutter, then we ended the season very inconsistently.
“But I think if you look at the league table from when Steven Gerrard arrived, I think Villa would have ended up ninth.
“So that would be about where I would have expected that side last season. I would say that would have been the top end of where I’d’ve thought that side could finish.
“So if the season had started then, we’d have been in the top half. He drove us away from relegation, because at the time when he first came in it was looking a bit concerning.
“We were hanging around down the bottom echelons of the league. We were struggling to adapt to the fact that [Jack] Grealish had gone, the whole football club was geared around Grealish.
“I think given the circumstances he did a decent job. It was a bit of a boring end to the season. I think Villa fans were getting a bit frustrated by the end of it because it had just been a nothing season but I think if you look at it from when Gerrard was there he did a decent job.
“I think fans will give him a bit of patience, give him a little bit of time. But I don’t think the fixtures are too bad to start.
“I think if we can get off to a good start and end the break before the World Cup somewhere around eighth, I think fans will be happy.
“Gerrard is a serial winner. He wants to win trophies, and I think he’ll be a manager who’ll take the cups seriously and I think that will give him a bit of leeway them as well.
“I think having a full preseason, with Gerrard being able to get his ideas across, I think that’s massive. I think that’s something that’s probably overlooked a little bit.
“And it will be massive for people like Coutinho to have a proper preseason. He won’t have had a proper one at Barca for the last few years.
“You can see the difference in Leon Bailey, he didn’t have a preseason last year. I just think being able to get his ideas across, certain players getting a full preseason under their belt at Villa, we’ll see a different animal this season.
“I’m quite hopeful to be honest.”
The Villans opened the season with a very disappointing 2-0 defeat at newly-promoted Bournemouth on Saturday (6 August), conceding inside the first two minutes, and afterwards the manager told BBC Sport that Villa had themselves to blame.
The result was a surprise, and certainly not what anybody connected with the club would have hoped for to kick off what is expected to be a much-improved season.
But Gerrard’s reputation should keep him from facing serious questions as long as the defeat doesn’t prove to be a sign of things to come.
In other Aston Villa news, Ian Wright was very concerned by the defending on display in the opening game loss.