‘The name on the back is a problem’ insists Steven Gerrard, as he starts from scratch at Liverpool

Interview: Gerrard is aware how former players are offered jobs they are not ready for just because of their name

Gerrard is hoping to take charge of his own youth team for next season (Getty)

Trading the sun and relaxation of Los Angeles for a return to the everyday industry of Liverpool is not something many people would do, but for Steven Gerrard that industry is what turned him into the player he was – and the manager he is hoping to become.

A name as big as his was always sure to be a job magnet once he announced his retirement from playing, with lower league clubs – as well as the media – throwing opportunities his way.

BT Sport’s Gerrard quickly became a pundit, following the likes of Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher into the studio, and that opened up even more opportunities for him, with MK Dons offering him his first job in management.

But while Neville tried his chances in La Liga and fellow former Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs is waiting for a Premier League job, Gerrard wants to earn his stripes as he did as a player – by working his way through grass roots.

“That's the problem,” Gerrard said. “The name on the back is the problem because people get excited at the end of their career – not necessarily the players but other people who want to put opportunities in front of these people. And some of these opportunities are hard to turn down.

“Now if you go in and take the wrong opportunity at the wrong time on reputation sentiment or emotion you could find it hard getting to the top.

“I have seen it so many times. I don't want to name any names, that would be disrespectful but for me there is no rush. If it takes me 5 years or 10 I don't care because where I want to be and the jobs I want I can't go in if I'm not ready.”

Has football’s sacking culture put the former Liverpool and England captain off?

“Yes it does scare me but I suppose it scares everyone. Just the way the game is and the way it's gone. The pressure is getting bigger and bigger on coaches and managers and whether it's unfair or not there's not a lot anyone can do about it.

“It doesn't scare me in terms of reputation as a player or not wanting to do it.”

Gerrard will shadow coaches in a variety of age groups for the rest of the season (Getty)

Gerrard sees his coaching role at Liverpool as an apprenticeship – much like his first playing role. He will spend the rest of the season shadowing coaches from every age group from the under 16s to the under 23s before taking a team himself for next season.

He cuts a figure of patience and maturity in his view of entering coaching and understands that he won’t have a queue jump into Anfield’s famous Boot Room, founded by the likes of Bill Shankley and Bob Paisley where future Reds managers cut their teeth.

“To become a good player you have got to do an apprenticeship and learn the values, how the profession works, you have to watch people like first team players who are better than you.

“You learn the good and the bad off them to try and get close to them and when you are ready you dislodge them and you move in. I don't see management as being much different.

Gerrard is sharing his coaching role with a punditry job at BT Sport (BT Sport)

“I think I have stages to do before I can even enter the boot room.

Liverpool and Gerrard have set short-term plans where the 36-year-old will take his own team during the summer, but long-term goals are not something he is willing to address.

Shadowing is okay for now but he needs to experience making decisions, substitutions, formations and man-management before he can decide if coaching is something he will love or not.

“There’s been no pressure, I haven’t set myself any targets of where I want to be or what I want to do.

“It might be a case that in a year’s time I’m sitting around a table with the same guys and going ‘I didn’t really connect with the coaching’ or ‘there’s a lot of things that have happened over the last 12 months that have put me off it’.

“But then again, I might be sitting here in a year’s time and saying ‘I’m so glad I went down that road and got a year behind me because I feel more ready and closer to it now’.”

Gerrard is seemingly being groomed to be a future Liverpool manager, but 20 years of success hasn’t blunted his grafting mentality nor given him a position of privilege he is willing to take.

"I've put the cones out before and I've pumped up the balls,” he insists. “I even used to clean the staff toilets when Joe Corrigan was in there.”

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