Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has rubbished suggestions he could have replaced Carlo Ancelotti as Everton manager and insists a move to the Toffees is “never a possibility.”
Eyebrows were raised when Gerrard’s old Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez took charge at Goodison Park and the Rangers boss admits he was “shocked and surprised” to see his name in the running to replace Ancelotti.
While Gerrard admits he will never take charge at Everton, he thinks it is different for his former Anfield boss believes the two can’t really be compared, brushing off criticisms of Benitez for crossing Stanley Park.
“Rafa wasn’t born in the city, he’s not a red through-and-through and he never played against Everton for 20 years and competed against them, so I think it’s a very different situation [to mine],” Gerrard said, speaking to ESPN.
“Rafa is his own man and will make his own professional decisions, so there’s no surprise that he wanted to get back in the Premier League at a big club and have the opportunity to compete against all the top teams in the league, so I wasn’t very shocked and surprised at all in all honesty.
“I was very shocked and surprised that my name was linked to the job. I don’t know where it came from, whether it was paper talk or if there was any truth in it, I’m not sure.
“[Managing Everton] is never a possibility as far as I’m concerned.”
Gerrard leaving Rangers for Everton never seemed plausible
Given Gerrard’s background at Liverpool and his publicly stated aim of managing at Anfield, he was never going to leave Rangers to take charge at Everton.
The likelihood of Gerrard taking any other Premier League job seems pretty slim and Rangers fans will hope that, when he does go to Anfield, he makes the leap directly from Ibrox.
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