For some, when Steven Gerrard left Rangers to join Aston Villa, it came as something as a surprise, for others, the writing had been on the wall for some time.
A moan about not spending money after losing to Malmo in Champions League qualifying fell mainly on deaf ears – we were 1-0 up playing against 10 men for the whole of the second half – and, after only signing players on freee transfers in the summer, there was every chance he was growing frustrated at the resources available to him.
Speaking to Football Insider, football finance expert, Kieran Maguire explains, in simple terms why Aston Villa was an attractive offer despite their lowly league position:
“The most recent account from a non-Covid year show Rangers spent £11m in 2019-20 compared to £156m at Villa.
“It does allow you to fish in a different pond. Steven Gerrard wants to progress and that might be the true reason he’s chosen to depart.
“He will be disappointed that they didn’t qualify for the Champions League. He may feel that’s linked with their failure to recruit last summer.
“Having achieved that title triumph, he believed there was scope to grow the club further. But that would have required investment.
“Steven Gerrard is a smart individual. He will be aware of the budget that was available for them
“He may have felt he was limited in terms of what he could do.”
The “bigger” club debate is one that we have seen on social media over the last week, when even John Hartson claims that Rangers could fit Villa “in their back pocket” you know that it’s a pretty one-sided argument.
What they do have though is an obviously bigger budget off the back of the Premier League’s TV deal, their revenue is almost double Rangers off the back of this, and yet, without it, they make nowhere near the same as us from other commercial and match day income.
It’s every manager’s dream though to have unlimited resources and that is what Gerrard will now have at Villa, the only problem is, he won’t have any excuses for his failures.
Arguments are only one-sided when you only listen to one side. Villa, a team that hasn’t finished higher then 11th in the EPL for 10+ years, have average 41,000 attendances, 30,000 season ticket holders and a further 20,500 on the waiting list. Past European Cup winners they’ve never had the luxury of competing in a two team league and no certainty of ever winning trophies. Every one is hard won against multiple competitors. And Hartson is a deluded fool just shouting his big mouth off
If we had the money up here that’s pumped into English football it would be a different ,story but down south seem to erase that from their tiny heads
Its an easy rebuff. To the situation 154 million spent
And more to be spent in January goes to show money does not buy success .Time will tell but some how I can’t see villa in Europe anytime soon possibly playing championship football next season? Right to leave ranger’s i think not . As an adverse managerial position now will obviously hamper his ultimate goal
Manager of Liverpool..so I think shooting himself on the foot seems about right
It is a one sided argument, why not try looking at the other perspective.. Which is that Villa have very wealthy(top 5 in the uk) and extremely ambitious owners who will back him, and as mentioned by Steve, Villa are a team that hasn’t finished higher then 11th in the EPL for 10+ years, have average 41,000 attendances, 30,000 season ticket holders and a further 20,500 on the waiting list.
We also boast one of the best academies in the UK and a state of the art training complex to go with a fabulous stadium with planned work to extend past 50,000. Villa are a club with massive potential, yes the last 10 years have been full of turmoil but it’s not like Rangers fans don’t understand what that’s like.
Steven Gerrard could not turn down this opportunity and anyone expecting us to be in the championship is deluded. We have a good squad that was poorly managed by Smith(2021 stats prove it) and we should be aiming for 7-10 this season.
lol shut up with your biased non sense. Rangers would fit Villa in their back pocket? You are nowhere near as big as Villa. You haven’t even won the European cup? Twitter followers rangers (693k) aston villa (1.7m) so ye Villa can comfortably fit Rangers in their back pocket. Enjoy playing league 1 football in the SPL losers!
I don’t know why games are required to be played at all when titles could just be decided by followers on Twitter. If it wasn’t for the EPL marketing machine, most English clubs would be completely unknown outside these islands. You should be embarrassed that Villa only have 1m more followers than a team from a footballing backwater. Typical of the ignorance so prevalent in football fans down south. If TV pulls the plug, your clubs will go back to being absolutely irrelevant outside the top 3 or 4.
Idiot
So does Gerard want to coach and improve players or does he want to just spend millions buying players. What gives the coach more satisfaction, buying or developing a player.
Villa supposedly spent 150 million on players and they are fighting relegation. Rangers have a great squad of players for the league they are in, that’s what you have to remember to keep things in perspective.
We aren’t fighting relegation. We had a very poor preseason, injuries throughout the squad, sold our captain and brought in three new big players who needed to gel but have also been injured plus Covid and Flu outbreaks added to a stupid international schedule. Smith didn’t have chance to play his first 11 at all and even had to change formation completely to get a team on the pitch. Its been a terrible start to a season but all players are now fit bar Nakamba so Gerrard will have a very talented squad to work with now but like you say there are no excuses, he has one of the most advanced training and sports science facilities in Europe now at his finger tips and he’s up against 16 or 17 top teams and managers. This is a test, a test he should relish.
League table tells a different story Megs.
No harm to Hartson, a decent big guy, but how exactly do you define a Big Club ? When I was a kid Leeds were in top 3 clubs in Europe..now ? If we define size by spending power then no club in Scotland is a big club…Villa have won the European Cup, like Celtic, so they are really a bigger club than Rangers who realistically will never compete at that level….The old argument was how well the big Glasgow clubs would compare in the EPL with their huge fanbase. With their present finances neither would survive there…they are both equivalent to a mid size Championship club… remember Brentford outbid Celtic for Toney..