Steven Gerrard has stated that he ‘looked at’ both West Ham United and Leicester City before he took the Aston Villa job, as he told Sky Sports.
The Premier League legend stated that he still actually looks at teams like West Ham and Leicester ‘from afar’ and the journeys they have been on.
Both finished in the Premier League’s top six last season and are currently looking to make noises in the Europa League – the Hammers are performing better than the Midlands side.
Whilst the Foxes have struggled this season in the league, the same cannot be said for David Moyes’ men, who are sitting in the Champions League places after beating Chelsea on Saturday.
Gerrard, who has won two out of his first three games in charge, will take on Leicester at Villa Park in a few hours time and he spoke about the club’s ambitions by using West Ham and Leicester as examples.
“The owners have certainly backed the ambition up,” said Gerrard. “They have invested a lot into this group of players.
“I look at teams now and I looked at teams from afar, before I took the job, like West Ham and Leicester.
“Teams like that who are part of a European journey now. Leicester won the FA Cup last year.
“I believe, at a club like Aston Villa, for us to get back and be serious is to go on a European journey, at some point. It is to try and compete for one of the domestic cups.”
Aston Villa crave adding trophies to their cabinet once again, and it has been a long time coming, as well as returning back to Europe as soon as possible.
Someone like West Ham are perhaps one of the best examples for the club to use because they haven’t spent bucket loads of money to put themselves in their current position.
The East London outfit are in a Premier League title race and 18 or so months ago they were battling relegation with Villa.
That’s huge improvement from the club that has been transformed under the stewardship of Moyes.
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