Richard Keys slams Steven Gerrard’s and tells him to distance himself from Liverpool

Richard Keys slams Steven Gerrard’s and tells him to distance himself from Liverpool

Steven Gerrard returned to Anfield on Saturday afternoon as Liverpool Legends beat Celtic 2-0

Former Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys has delivered a bizarre swipe at Steven Gerrard – claiming the legendary Liverpool midfielder will have to give up his affiliation with the Reds if he has any hope of reviving his managerial career .

The 42-year-old represented Liverpool Legends in their charity fundraiser against Celtic XI on Saturday afternoon and celebrated the occasion by taking a typical penalty past Artur Boruc in the first half as the Reds won a 2-0 win to lead.

It was Gerrard’s first appearance at Anfield since being sacked as Aston Villa manager in October 2022, when his 11-month tenure at the Midlands side was prematurely ended and the Villians hovered above the three bottom of the Premier League.

However, Keys believes the longer Gerrard lingers at his youth club, the harder it will be for him to have a successful managerial career.

“If Gerrard still has ambitions to manage or coach the Premier League, I really think he should dodge Legends games – as we saw at Anfield last weekend,” the former presenter wrote. Sky Sports in their latest blog post. “Gerrard still has a few years away from Liverpool. One of his biggest problems at Villa was that the fans largely saw him as the Liverpool captain. It was fine at first – Gerrard said the right things, but as time went on he passed and things weren’t going too well, he was an easy stick to beat him with, even though he had those two years at Rangers as well.

“Maybe he’s given up on the belief that he has a coaching career, but if he hasn’t, I strongly believe he should definitely give up on those games. Anyway, he shouldn’t challenge the Celtic fans like he did after scoring “.

Keys added: “I know it’s difficult and I know they kept him busy throughout the game but he’s a big guy and he knows he’s all part of the performance. These fans had donated their money to charity (players still get paid, by the way) and therefore had the right to get involved in the cause.”

Gerrard, who began his coaching career at Liverpool’s academy shortly after retiring from professional football at the end of 2016, left management for almost six months and recently joined Channel 4 to cover England’s Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.

But in recent months the former England captain with 114 caps has been linked with vacancies across Europe, including Trabzospor, Paris Saint-Germain and the Poland national team, all of whom have reportedly considered an approach for Gerrard. .

Speaking after his performance on Saturday, the former Liverpool captain said: “If you love football, if you love the game, if you love this club, I can’t get enough of it.”