Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins has revealed that Steven Gerrard's managerial reign at the club began to turn sour after a change in assistant managers. Gerrard was in charge of the Villans between November 2021 and October 2022, a period that started positively but ended in disappointment.
Gerrard's first campaign saw him steer Villa to a 14th-placed finish after taking over from the sacked Dean Smith when they were 16th, just two points above the relegation zone. However, his second season yielded only two victories in 11 Premier League matches, culminating in his sacking following a 3-0 away defeat to Fulham.
According to Watkins, the turning point came when Gerrard's long-term assistant Michael Beale departed for Queens Park Rangers. Neil Critchley was brought in as a replacement, but things were never the same after that change.
Speaking on the Rio Ferdinand Presents show, Watkins reflected: "When Gerrard came in, I was excited. I didn't know how he was going to play, I'd seen Gerrard obviously play. Like the last time I saw him was when he was playing for Liverpool and then next thing he's your manager. So I was really excited to see how he was. Obviously, he's played at such a high level."
He added: "I thought he's so relatable. He's been in our position, he knows how we feel, he can talk to you on a level, whereas some managers, like our boss now, he is the boss. You don't really have many conversations with him. But I like it like that. With Gerrard, it was really good at the start. I felt like we were playing some good football, there was a good feel around the club."
Watkins continued: "And then I think things changed a little bit when he had a new assistant that came in. I think things had changed and we just didn't hit the ground running at the start of the season like we were before."
Gerrard was quickly replaced by Unai Emery, who has since established himself as one of Villa's greatest managers. Emery has guided the club into the top four twice and won the Europa League this season, their first trophy in 30 years. This success seemed inconceivable when Gerrard was dismissed, with morale low across the squad.
Watkins admitted feeling guilty about Gerrard's sacking, saying: "I felt really bad. I felt terrible when he got sacked, we found out on the coach. And I don't know, I felt like I took a little bit of responsibility for that because he's looking at me and all the other attackers to score and produce and we weren't doing that."
He recalled a match against Tottenham where Villa dominated the first half but failed to score: "We just had so many chances, we just couldn't put it in the back of the net. They came out second half and they destroyed us. Someone got a hat trick, I can remember that day. And it was just like, yeah, it just wasn't going our way. But as a manager and as a person, he was a really good guy."
The full interview is available on the Rio Ferdinand Presents YouTube channel.
