Former Liverpool team-mate Danny Murphy cannot imagine Steven Gerrard returning to Rangers so soon after his sudden departure from Premier League outfit Aston Villa, speaking to talkSPORT (23 November, 12pm).
They say you should never go back. But nobody told Zinedine Zidane that. Or Carlo Ancelotti, Marcello Lippi or Jose Mourinho for that matter.
Recent history is littered with examples of managers who enjoyed genuine success after returning for a second spell at their old stomping ground. Jupp Heynckes, meanwhile, guided Bayern Munich to the treble in 2012/13 over 20 years on from his first stint at the German giants.
Murphy, however, does not expect Gerrard to follow a similar route, just 12 months after walking away from Ibrox for a fresh challenge at Aston Villa.
Who will replace Giovanni van Bronckhorst as Rangers manager?
“I’d be surprised (if he returned to Rangers),” says Murphy, who played alongside Gerrard for Liverpool and England.
“There are a few cases of managers who go back and it works out. But the location, the intensity of the (Rangers) job… He’s back near his family now. I think a new challenge for Stevie, if I was as a betting man.
“But I didn’t except him to take the Villa job. So you never know. But my gut feeling is no.”
Giovanni van Bronckhorst this week became the third shortest-serving manager in Rangers’ history; sacked following a mixed spell at the helm which included Scottish Cup success and a stirring run to the Europa League final, but also a humiliating Champions League campaign and a couple of heavy defeats to Celtic.
Gerrard’s former Gers assistant Mick Beale is, according to the Daily Record, the current frontrunner to take over from Van Bronckhorst. QPR director Les Ferdinand has already admitted that he wouldn’t stand in Beale’s way.
The likes of Kjetil Knutsen and Barak Bakhar have distanced themselves from the vacant Ibrox post, however, though Van Bronckhorst’s old Feyenoord mentor Peter Bosz remains in the conversation.
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