{"id":604273,"date":"2021-11-10T08:55:33","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T13:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=604273"},"modified":"2021-11-10T08:55:33","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T13:55:33","slug":"aston-villa-steven-gerrard-appointment-edging-closer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/11\/10\/aston-villa-steven-gerrard-appointment-edging-closer\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Villa Steven Gerrard Appointment Edging Closer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/preeceobserver\/status\/1458415975578079234?s=21\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ashley Preece of Birmingham Live<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/10\/26\/matty-cash-poland\/\" target=\"_self\">Aston Villa<\/a> are edging closer and closer to completing the appointment of Rangers manager and Premier League legend Steven Gerrard. The news comes not long after Dean Smith\u2019s dismissal. It was clear from the off that Gerrard was the main target. And, now, it looks as though Villa have all but got their man.<\/p>\n<p>The appointment, should it take place as expected, will almost parallel that of Brendan Rodgers to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/09\/30\/kelechi-iheanacho-leicester-city-europa-league\/\" target=\"_self\">Leicester City<\/a>. The Foxes boss decided to leave behind his legacy created at Celtic, and the opportunity for endless title races, for Premier League management &#8211; something Gerrard is close to doing.<\/p>\n<h2>Aston Villa Closing in on Steven Gerrard Appointment<\/h2>\n<h3>Leaving Rangers Behind<\/h3>\n<p>Gerrard\u2019s exit away from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/08\/27\/top-five-old-firm-managerial-debuts\/\" target=\"_self\">Rangers<\/a> always seemed inevitable, especially after he won the Scottish Premiership unbeaten last season. It always looked as though he was likely to take that crucial next step in management; that leap up to the big stage; a stage Rangers are unable to provide.<\/p>\n<p>Whenever a Premier League job became available, Gerrard\u2019s was the first name linked to the job, but the role and project never quite felt right for him. Until now. Aston Villa represent an ideal first step into Premier League management. They are not a side in crisis, nor are they a side cemented to mid-table mediocrity.<\/p>\n<p>The Midlands club have the funding available, and the players within their ranks to make a leap towards what has previously been No Man\u2019s Land. All they needed was the right manager to march them towards the unknown. And, as the days go by, Gerrard is looking more and more likely to be that man. The Liverpool legend brings with him the experience of a League title and plenty of memorable European days from his time in Scotland &#8211; something which could pay dividends if he completes a move to Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"wNIRFzGSRzBMriaWB7g8Yw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1236350011\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'wNIRFzGSRzBMriaWB7g8Yw',sig:'Xk8J33l2QdZHwvJZIoHIg0kauAv15kkdHoJZkKNR7cc=',w:'594px',h:'428px',items:'1236350011',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to Ashley Preece of Birmingham Live, Aston Villa are edging closer and closer to completing the appointment of Rangers manager and Premier League legend Steven Gerrard. The news comes not long after Dean Smith\u2019s dismissal. It was clear from the off that Gerrard was the main target. And, now, it looks as though Villa [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3402,"featured_media":604274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3838,30,3,8429],"tags":[632],"class_list":["post-604273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-news","category-premier-league","category-rangers","tag-steven-gerrard"],"modified_by":"Tom Cunningham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}