Former Aston Villa and Al-Ettifaq manager Steven Gerrard has been linked with a potential role as new head coach at Wrexham. The pressure builds on Phil Parkinson.
Wrexham currently sit 21st in the EFL Championship after the opening five games of the season. Their only win came against Millwall away from home just before the international break last month.
The Red Dragons spent over £30 million this summer. They hope to build on their three consecutive promotions. However, so far it’s been a troublesome couple of weeks. They have struggled, especially defensively, during their league fixtures.
According to The Sun, Steven Gerrard has been identified as a probable replacement for Phil Parkinson. This comes after reports lately surfacing that he’s under some heavy scrutiny at the club.
Gerrard succeeded in Scotland and struggled in England
Steven Gerrard retired from professional football in January 2017. In July 2018, he was appointed as the new Rangers boss. They were eyeing a first league title since 2011. Unbelievably, he achieved this with the Scottish giants. In 2020/21, Rangers won the Scottish Premier League. Not only did they win, but they also won it unbeaten.
After success in Scotland, Gerrard managed to get a nice move to the Premier League. He took charge of sleeping giant at the time, Aston Villa, in November 2021. Things started well at Villa for Gerrard. He won three of his first four league games. When defeated, it was to big six sides who really had to dig deep to break down his rigid defence.
His Aston Villa side almost pulled off the ultimate Premier League fairy tale story on the final day of the 2021/22 season. If Liverpool were to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers (which they did) and Manchester City were to drop points to Aston Villa, Liverpool would be crowned Premier League champions.
Aston Villa took a shock 2-0 lead with just 20 minutes to play at the Etihad Stadium. It was none other than Phillipe Coutinho scoring the second goal, which looked to seal the title for Liverpool. In the end, Manchester City scored three goals in just five minutes. This broke not just Liverpool hearts but Gerrard’s heart as well.
The following season was where it really started to go downhill for Steven. Aston Villa won two of their opening twelve Premier League games of the campaign. He was eventually dismissed in October 2022.
Gerrard’s disappointing stint in Saudi
After nine months out of a job, Gerrard was controversially hired as new head coach for Saudi Pro League side, Al-Ettifaq. He also signed former Liverpool players, Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wijnaldum.
It was a hugely underwhelming 18 months in the Middle East for Gerrard. His side lost more games than they won. In January 2025, he left the club by mutual consent and hasn’t been involved with any club since.
How can Gerrard improve Wrexham?
It hasn’t all been negative for Gerrard since he became a football manager, not many coaches can win a league title unbeaten which is such an impressive achievement. It shows that his philosophy can definitely work it just depends on the club and if the players will adapt to it.
Wrexham concede a lot of goals at the moment. At Rangers, Gerrard prevented them from leaking too many goals which ultimately led them to an invincible season. If he can have that affect on Wrexham then with the quality of players at the club, they could actually climb the table to an adequate level and quite easily prepare themselves for a promotion push next season if not this season depending on how his tactics are interpreted by the players.