Steven Gerrard has admitted for the first time that he harbours regrets about leaving Rangers when he did.
The Liverpool icon led the Ibrox club to the Scottish title in his third full season in Glasgow only to quit for Aston Villa in November 2021.
Citing a lack of backing which culminated in Rangers losing a Champions League play-off to Malmo that summer, Gerrard was unrepentant at the time about abruptly leaving Ibrox for a return to English football.
Speaking on The Overlap podcast, however, he expressed regret that he did not stay longer in his first managerial job.
‘I regret doing it now, sitting here. I didn’t at the time,’ he said.
‘Also, the conversations with Rangers after we won it, the recruitment and the finance chats that we were having, didn’t feel like Rangers were ready to go again.
‘It was a bit more of a like, “oh, let’s settle this and fix that and do that”. The promises weren’t as strong as what I thought they would be.
‘Then the Premier League offer and opportunity comes in, it’s tough. It’s tough to say no to Villa, a great club. I have nothing bad to say about them.’
Gerrard, who was subsequently sacked by Villa and Saudi Pro-League side Al-Ettifaq, also revealed that he would ‘turn a blind eye’ to Alfredo Morelos at Rangers as he spoke about the challenge of managing the Colombian striker.
The forward scored 17 goals in the season when Rangers claimed the Premiership title to stop Celtic winning 10-in-a-row.
But his lack of discipline off the park held him back with Gerrard admitting that he had to bring in Jermain Defoe and Kemar Roofe because he couldn’t rely in the South American.
‘Morelos at Rangers was tough to manage,’ he recalled.
‘Maverick behaviours. He’d bend the rules.
‘When you’re going into a job, you want to try and set rules and have values of your team and stuff like that.
‘Sometimes you’d have to bite your tongue and turn a blind eye to one or two, it’s just trying to not get caught by the players when you’re doing it.
‘But yeah, he was important to Rangers and I knew he was so important. I knew the time would come where I could get into a place where he’s maybe less important.
‘That’s why I brought Jermain Defoe in. That’s why I brought Kemar Roofe in. Because when he was having these periods, where he would be challenging or break your rules and your values, Defoe and Kemar Roofe were itching to play and they were as good as him.’
