Phil Thompson wary of perils of Steven Gerrard jumping straight into management
Thursday 24 November 2016 15:50, UK
Steven Gerrard should not rush into first-team management, says Phil Thompson, though he may already have a job lined up.
The 36-year-old announced his retirement on Thursday after leaving LA Galaxy, having already held talks with MK Dons regarding their vacant managerial post.
However, Thompson - who made the transition from Liverpool player to coach - would prefer to see Gerrard gain experience as a youth coach before taking the step into management, potentially with England or Liverpool.
The Soccer Saturday pundit said: "There will be a lot of opportunities but I'd rather see him with England Under-21s, which would probably be my preference, then come back to Liverpool in some capacity, maybe with the Under-23s or as first-team coach.
"Aidy Boothroyd is down there in an interim role with the England Under-21s with a wealth of experience. He's gone into the under 21 set up is the sort of figure to learn from.
"It's one thing cutting your teeth with the younger players at a football club but going into a League One or League Two side is a difficult scenario unless you've got a senior coach with you.
"It's a good way of learning your trade. Pep Guardiola did it with Barcelona's youth team, Zinedine Zidane did it with Real Madrid's B team and Patrick Vieira worked with Manchester City's academy before moving on to better things.
"I would like to see him come back to Liverpool from a selfish point of view but I'm not too sure it would be with the first team.
"With the team doing to so well it could take the focus away, especially with Jurgen Klopp's trusted lieutenants doing such a great job."
Thompson does, however, suspect Gerrard might already have a role lined up, given the sudden nature of his retirement.
"I did speak to him a couple of months ago and he was still unsure about where his next step was. The one thing he was sure about was leaving LA Galaxy," he added.
"He was hoping to be a player-coach somewhere, which would have given him some coaching experience as he's not got any whatsoever.
"You just felt with the way he retired quite suddenly, having known he considered carrying on player and coach, that maybe he has something in the pipelines."
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