Standing on the touchline at Previous Trafford final June as a part of Channel 4’s protection of an England Euro 2024 qualifier, Steven Gerrard appeared to dismiss the prospect of teaching in Saudi Arabia.
“There’s been lots stated within the media. Plenty of it’s not true, I can say that,” the previous Liverpool and England captain stated. “I used to be invited over there to take a look at a possible supply, which I did. I’ve been analysing that in the previous few days however, the place we stand proper now, I gained’t be taking that provide up.”
Regardless of that “proper now”, Gerrard gave the impression of a person closing the door on Al Ettifaq. So many high-profile names had been being lured to the Saudi Professional League, however Gerrard gave the impression to be ruling it out. Thanks however no thanks.
🗣️ ‘I will not be taking that provide’
Steven Gerrard clarifying the rumours round managing in Saudi Arabia earlier in the present day. The place subsequent for the previous England captain? 🤔#C4Football | #ThreeLions pic.twitter.com/xqQtKwYjlr
— Channel 4 Sport (@C4Sport) June 19, 2023
Over the times that adopted, he briefly emerged because the bookmakers’ favorite for a managerial emptiness at Sheffield Wednesday. Leeds United held way more attraction however they turned to former Norwich Metropolis coach Daniel Farke as an alternative.
Then, in late June, it emerged that Gerrard had been again out to Saudi Arabia for extra talks. Al Ettifaq’s management had been refusing to take no for a solution. Wherever he questioned one thing (participant recruitment, the make-up of his backroom staff, residing preparations, wage), he was informed there was an answer.
Sure, he could be given the monetary backing to attempt to signal gamers from the Premier League, together with Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson. Sure, he may deliver an intensive (and costly) backroom staff with him. If he and his household didn’t need to dwell in Dammam — they usually didn’t — they might dwell over the border and luxuriate in extra relaxed attitudes in a gated neighborhood of luxurious villas simply throughout the water in Manama, Bahrain. Wage? In that extraordinary Saudi summer season, the numbers went up and up and it turned a suggestion he felt he couldn’t refuse.
And so, on July 3, Al Ettifaq introduced Gerrard’s appointment on a two-year contract. In an announcement, he was hailed as “a legend who brings an excellent historical past and thrilling future to the membership”. Gerrard smiled as he launched himself in Arabic and declared himself “Ettifaqi”, including, “See you quickly”.
من الأسطورة شخصيًا 🗣️
جيرارد يوجه رسالة خاصة لجماهير #الاتفاق ❤️💚#جيرارد_اتفاقي pic.twitter.com/ZcNunj4EtS
— نادي الاتفاق (@Ettifaq) July 3, 2023
The sight of Gerrard within the Saudi Professional League has taken some getting used to. One of many nice gamers of the Premier League period, he began final season as head coach of Aston Villa, with ambitions to handle Liverpool when Jurgen Klopp moved on.
The swift unravelling of his tenure at Villa (from profitable eight of his first 16 Premier League video games in cost to simply 4 wins out of twenty-two thereafter) raised severe questions on the place Gerrard’s subsequent administration job would possibly come from. However… Al Ettifaq? It was onerous to see a approach again to the Premier League — not to mention to his beloved Anfield — from there.
It appears tougher nonetheless now that, even with the credibility of the heralded Al Ettifaq “undertaking” undermined by the abrupt departure of Henderson, its on-pitch chief, Gerrard has agreed a two-year extension to his contract, as revealed by The Athletic yesterday and confirmed by the membership final evening.
“As a membership, we all know the place we need to go and we all know we wish Steven to steer us on the journey forward,” Al Ettifaq president Samer Al Misehal stated. “There aren’t any shortcuts to success and Steven’s private work ethic, his management qualities and his dedication to the undertaking has proven everybody on the membership simply what it is going to take to compete on the highest degree. Steven will likely be given time and sources to proceed on this journey and construct one thing particular.”
Gerrard was equally upbeat. “That is very pleasing for myself and my household and appears like recognition for lots of onerous work and dedication,” he stated. “We knew in the beginning this was an enormous job and a difficult job. We needed to put in place new infrastructure, like constructing a brand new coaching floor in phases and constructing a brand new stadium, however lots has been achieved. It’s a relationship (…) that’s rising, constructing and getting stronger, and I’m actually trying ahead to the longer term.
“Everyone knows it’s not going to be an in a single day repair, nevertheless it’s actually thrilling by way of the place we consider we will get the membership to. We need to construct a particular membership and construct an elite tradition across the staff and squad.”
Steven Gerrard has had a patchy report at Al Ettifaq (Ali Alhaji/AFP through Getty Pictures)
These are the feelings you would possibly usually hear when a supervisor has exceeded all expectations in his first yr or 18 months at a membership.
However Gerrard was solely six months right into a two-year contract. Extra to the purpose, Al Ettifaq are in a distant eighth place within the Saudi Professional League, with one win of their final 11 video games. Henderson regretted the transfer so severely that he agreed to a termination of that vast contract, at a major monetary value, to affix Ajax. Gerrard’s assistant, Ian Foster, has left to change into head coach at Plymouth Argyle. The typical attendance is 7,854. None of this has sounded good for the Al Ettifaq “undertaking”.
They aren’t one of many “large 4” golf equipment who had been taken over by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund final summer season to embark on a money-no-object mission to signal the most important names within the sport. However, backed by the dominion’s second-largest petrochemicals firm SABIC, Al Ettifaq had been the most important spenders among the many relaxation: signing Henderson from Liverpool, Georginio Wijnaldum from Paris Saint-Germain, Scotland defender Jack Hendry from Membership Bruges, Demarai Grey from Everton and former Fulham and Celtic ahead Moussa Dembele from Fulham, in addition to skilled coaches and analysts who had labored within the Premier League. There may be some mitigation with the objectives drying up since Dembele was injured, however they weren’t anticipated to be thus far off the tempo.
Briefly, it doesn’t appear to be a state of affairs that might normally benefit a head coach being given an prolonged contract.
However this isn’t your commonplace soccer undertaking. As with a lot else that’s taking place within the Saudi Professional League, it needs to be seen within the context of the broader ambitions and the large funding in high-profile sports activities occasions — and high-profile sports activities folks — to advertise the dominion, each not directly and immediately.
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Henderson is actually not within the Cristiano Ronaldo class profile-wise (who’s?), but when his acquisition was a coup for Al Ettifaq and for the league as a complete, then his departure is damaging, as are the rumblings that proceed to encompass Karim Benzema and Neymar, two bona fide A-list stars, at Al Ittihad and Al Hilal respectively.
Inside that context, the legitimacy of the Al Ettifaq “undertaking” depends so closely on Gerrard’s profile, however the membership’s administration and, extra broadly, Saudi soccer’s directors had been impressed and delighted by Gerrard’s dealing with of the state of affairs — and little doubt by the effusiveness of his assertion final evening.
Given the Henderson state of affairs, it was hanging that Gerrard spoke about how “my household has been all-in by way of embracing the brand new journey, a brand new problem.
“We needed to benefit from this and the household have settled extraordinarily properly. I’m completely happy, I’m excited and that’s why I’m happy to increase — as a result of we’re all having fun with the journey thus far.
“The straightforward choice could be to remain in Liverpool, to attend for jobs, however as a household, we determined we needed one thing a little bit bit exterior the field. I’ve learnt about adapting to a brand new tradition, a brand new league, making new buddies, going through new challenges. I feel that has made me a greater individual and a greater coach and in addition made me mature a bit as properly.”
What subsequent for Steven Gerrard? (Essa Doubisi/Getty Pictures)
Additionally it is making a really rich retired footballer even wealthier and when the distinctive promoting level of this undertaking is monetary, it turns into tougher to ascertain what would possibly or won’t be a simple choice.
For each Gerrard and Henderson, it was a simple choice to reject Al Ettifaq’s preliminary advances final summer season. Over the course of a fortnight, because the overtures intensified and the sums escalated, they discovered themselves ready the place they felt it was simple to say sure and nearly not possible to say no. Inside six months, Henderson, deeply disenchanted, had modified to probably the most emphatic no, determined to get again to Europe for each household {and professional} causes.
Has Gerrard, in venturing “a little bit bit exterior the field”, actually left his consolation zone? Or has he discovered it at a membership that’s prepared to increase an enormous contract after a run of 1 win in 11 video games?
On prime of the blindingly apparent attraction, there should genuinely be one thing comforting for a supervisor to be at a membership the place there’s nearly a clean canvas and a chance to begin afresh — and the place persistence is a lot larger than within the Championship, the place his former England team-mate Wayne Rooney lasted lower than three months at Birmingham Metropolis.
However there have been solely 5,808 folks at Al Ettifaq’s final residence sport. What, realistically, is Gerrard constructing in the direction of?
He was at pains to level out in his assertion final evening that “it’s a outcomes enterprise”, however from a distance, it doesn’t look very similar to one. It seems like a wierd existence, as if now there isn’t any approach out and no apparent subsequent transfer for Gerrard, irrespective of how good, dangerous or detached outcomes is likely to be.
(Prime picture: Courtesy of Al Ettifaq)
