Villa should have shown more ‘class’ with Gerrard, who had ‘no chance’ with lack of investment

Steven Gerrard was doomed to fail at Aston Villa, who were not ‘classy’ in sacking someone with a worse win percentage than Tim Sherwood.

Class action
While sadly not compared to the shooting of Bambi, there is still a predictable amount of sh*t lost over Steven Gerrard’s sacking by Aston Villa.

Take this, for example, from Tom Collomosse of the Daily Mail:

‘Though not even Gerrard’s staunchest supporters could argue he has done a good job at Villa, the club’s 41-word exit statement, with a one-line quote from a spokesman, was not a classy way to treat one of English football’s modern greats.’

Not sure being ‘classy’ and respecting their manager’s legendary but completely irrelevant playing career should be Aston Villa’s priority in the aftermath of a 3-0 defeat to Fulham which left them outside the relegation zone on goal difference.

‘It would surely have been more sensible to let the dust settle and make the call at the club’s Bodymoor Heath training ground on Friday morning. Whatever you think of Gerrard the manager, he deserved more.’

What difference would it make to sack him on Friday morning instead of Thursday evening? Is it ‘classier’ to let him mull his future over all night? Is it more ‘sensible’ to make a man unemployed when it’s bright outside?

As for what Gerrard ‘deserved’, Villa were 16th and two points outside the relegation zone after 11 games when he was appointed. Almost one year and more than £80m spent across two transfer windows later, they are 17th and above the dropzone on goal difference only after 11 matches.

The only thing he ‘deserved’ was the sack, morning, night or over sodding lunch.

Mings can only get better
This paragraph from Collomosse’s article also stands out:

‘Matty Cash and Jacob Ramsey have improved under his guidance and though his method is open to question, there is no doubt Gerrard has restored Mings to strong form and Ezri Konsa has also looked much more like his old self.’

There is a bit of doubt as to whether Gerrard has restored Mings to strong form. And was Ezri Konsa’s ‘old self’ always quite bad?

‘Ard knock life
Collomosse ends his piece thus:

‘In the end, though, Gerrard was sunk by that deadly combination for managers: fed-up fans, boring football and bad results. Whatever Gerrard’s time at Villa was, ‘continuous improvement’ it was certainly not. The next man will be operating under similarly unforgiving terms.’

Yep,…