Rangers manager Steven Gerrard is already one of the contenders to one day succeed Gareth Southgate as England manager, according to FA technical director Dan Ashworth.
Gerrard is one of a number of former English internationals now making their first steps into coaching and management like Frank Lampard and Joe Cole, all working with the FA to further their careers after hanging up the playing boots.
Being such high profile stars south of the border, it’s likely their names will often come up in relation to being future managers of the national team and for Ashworth, having a pool of experienced players at the top level now becoming managers is a big benefit.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, he said:
Phil Neville has come out of that system, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole.
It’s our job to make sure we have enough people on the radar that are English qualified coaches, that hold the right attributes, whether they are in the system like Phil [England women’s head coach] and Aidy [England Under-21 manager], or out of the system like Steven, Frank, Eddie (Howe), Sean (Dyche), that we have the right relationships with them so, should the time come when Gareth moves on, we have a bigger and better pool of English coaches that are able and interested in taking the job.
Steven took Liverpool Under-18 for over a year. Steven has gone to Rangers, Frank has gone into the Championship (with Derby County), Scott’s gone in at Tottenham Under-18 and Under-23 (and now Fulham caretaker manager).
Sol (Campbell) has gone in right at the bottom of the pyramid (as manager of Macclesfield Town). Michael Carrick (is coaching) at Manchester United. Ultimately, I hope they are Premier League and England managers.
Clearly the day Gerrard potentially takes charge of England is a long way off, but managing Rangers is certainly a good learning experience for him in terms of pressure and expectation.
Not many jobs in Europe come close to the scrutiny he is under at Ibrox and although his debut season hasn’t quite gone to play, the building blocks are in place for us to push on and succeed next term.
Hopefully one day we can all look back on the Gerrard era at Rangers as being the start of something special.