Exclusive: Ty Bracey admits pressure is on Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa this season
We’re delighted to welcome Villa View host Ty Bracey as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Ty Bracey is confident that Aston Villa have the right squad to succeed even if Steven Gerrard doesn’t turn out to be the right manager.
After heavy investment from the owners, on the squad and the stadium, there is understandably going to be pressure to succeed on the former Rangers boss, with expectations now much higher than the 14th-placed finish from last season.
But while Bracey doesn’t expect Gerrard to be sacked any time soon despite a disappointing opening day loss at Bournemouth, he accepts that this season is where results need to be produced.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News he said: “There’s definitely going to be a bit of pressure. The owners have spent a lot of money, and they’ll want to see results on the pitch.
“They’re heavily invested with things going on with the stadium, they’re heavily invested in the club, I think it was reported [recently] that they’ve injected another £30million into the club for cash flow.
“They are doing what they need to do, and I think now is where we need to start seeing those results.
“It happens with every manager. The pressure will come, but if it turns out that he’s not the right man I genuinely believe that it’s the right squad, give or take one or two.
“So if he’s not the man they need to make that decision quickly. I don’t think he’s going to get sacked any time soon but it was just a loss on the opening day of the season, which is quite frustrating because we looked very stale.
“It was how we reacted that was important.”
The damaging injury to Diego Carlos may have tempered expectations slightly since he was a major part of the summer upgrade.
But even allowing for that it is unlikely that a similar finish to the previous campaign would be deemed acceptable, so the ex-Liverpool captain knows he can’t afford a run of indifferent results like the one that ended the season.
The win over Everton has lifted the early worry for now, but with the stakes raised it could only take another bad result or two for questions to start being asked again.
In other Aston Villa news, Alan Hutton says the injury to Carlos doesn’t have to be season-defining.