Steven Gerrard has been sacked as Aston Villa boss after his side slumped to a 3-0 defeat to Fulham on Thursday evening.
Villa confirmed Gerrard had left the club just hours after the result, and a statement on the Villa website read: “We would like to thank Steven for his hard work and commitment and wish him well for the future.” Villa are hovering just above the relegation zone following Thursday’s result.
Gerrard joined Villa less than a year ago after guiding Rangers to their first Scottish title in over a decade in 2021. However, Gerrard hasn’t been able to replicate similar success in the West Midlands – and the result against Fulham was the breaking point.
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Just hours before leaving Villa, Gerrard told Amazon Prime: “The performance was nowhere near good enough.
“The first half shocked me, particularly after the weekend. I’ll try and find the answers but I won’t disrespect my players. We were excellent at the weekend but it’s very difficult to praise them after tonight. It’s tough but I’m a man and I accept it and I feel their frustration. It was a tough night for me personally.
“We’ll see what happens. I understand the situation we’re in. I’m a fighter and I will never, ever quit anything, certainly when it comes to football, so we’ll see what happens.”
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John McGinn hit out at the performance after the full-time whistle, he said: “Disappointed. It doesn’t represent us as players.
“Players who have got to this level by working hard and fighting for every ball. It’s embarrassing to be involved in. We’ve let the supporters and manager down. It could have been a lot more. We’re going to have to pick ourselves up for Sunday.”
He added: “I’ve experienced a lot at this club. It’s important for us as players to ignore it but we need to give them something to cheer about. They follow us near and far, we can understand their anger and we can only apologise it. We can’t dwell on it.”
(Image: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Gerrard only led Villa to 13 wins from 40 games during his 11 months in charge.
Villa now face the tough task of replacing the Liverpool legend in the dugout while truing to avoid a relegation battle during the latter stages of the Premier League campaign.
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