It is a good fit. For him, for them, Steven Gerrard and Aston Villa feels right. He is a big name for a big club, and has made a highly promising start in management. They demand progress and have shown readiness to invest in a project.
This could work. Newcastle must be kicking themselves.
All it would have taken was to be bold. We know that now. Gerrard could have been prised out of Rangers with a clearer, more determined approach.
Villa got Gerrard because they made him their No 1 choice. Had Newcastle done the same it is likely he would be their manager.
Steven Gerrard and Aston Villa are a perfect fit - a big name manager and a big club united
Instead, while Gerrard was made aware of interest on Tyneside, it was as part of an interview process. He would be considered, that’s all.
It is not what any candidate wants to hear — and certainly not the manager of Rangers. They too are a big club. Not in terms of modern football realpolitik because the strength of the Scottish League keeps them relatively small, but in terms of support, history, significance in local daily life, Rangers are huge.
Most definitely their supporters think this. How then could Gerrard entertain a conversation with any English club that might come to nothing, but may also leak — indeed quite probably, given Newcastle’s form — therefore alienating him at Ibrox but leaving him stuck. Villa changed the dynamic with a promise and an offer. Gerrard was their No 1.
When Daniel Levy — nobody’s contender for Chairman of the Year 2021 — went in pursuit of Antonio Conte he did not court him with talk of a shortlist of interviewees. He did the deal. Yet if the last few weeks have been a managerial draft, Newcastle had first pick — and they blew it.
Gerrard was lured in by the people at Villa because they made him their No 1, unlike Newcastle
They won’t admit this because how could they? Yet reports from St James’ Park of Eddie Howe’s grand unveiling on Wednesday were decidedly underwhelming.
The new owners took over the club amid scenes not unlike The Beatles at Shea Stadium, but an eyewitness put the numbers welcoming Howe at no more than 20. That doesn’t make him a bad manager, or a bad choice, but one imagines Gerrard’s arrival on Tyneside might have been met rather differently.
In a BBC poll shortly after the takeover, only Conte attracted more support as successor to Steve Bruce, and that ship has sailed too.
The new owners are populists. They briefed that Bruce would be gone before the first game to get the locals onside, then went prematurely with the appointment of Unai Emery. Bringing Gerrard to Tyneside may have delivered scenes nearer to Kevin Keegan’s homecoming, which is no doubt how these early weeks were envisaged.
Instead, there was Howe — an appointment that would have sent the fans giddy a year ago, but now feels undersold.
This week’s spin was about his brilliant interview, his impressive plans for the future, and how much it excited the decision-makers.
Eddie Howe is not a bad manager, but his unveiling at St James' Park was underwhelming
So much so they went straight out and offered the job to Emery. Now it transpires they could have recruited Gerrard with greater focus.
Still, credit to Villa for getting it done. This is, potentially, a game-changing move because Gerrard is a game-changing manager.
He is a coach that players will want to work with, an asset in any transfer window and not just in Britain. Foreign players will know him, will have grown up admiring him. Villa do not have Newcastle’s money but Gerrard gives them more clout.
At Newcastle, backing him with Saudi Arabian investment was a partnership to be feared.
Take, for instance, Kalvin Phillips or Declan Rice. These are players currently active with clubs outside the traditional elite, who Newcastle might think they could persuade to travel north with lavish contractual offers.
Be the first, be the Yaya Toure of this revolution, become a living legend on Tyneside. Yes, it’s still a hard sell. But then add Gerrard. You want to be the best midfielder in Europe? Come and work with the coach who was. Come with us on our journey to the pinnacle of the European game.
Newcastle had first pick at Gerrard and blew their chance, he would be theirs if they were bold
With Howe at the helm, Newcastle cannot yet be sold that way. He’s a realist.
‘I’m absolutely confident we can stay up,’ he said. ‘But I make no promises.’
It could be argued that Gerrard is more a gamble than Howe for a club in a relegation battle. Villa are two points off the bottom three with a manager in his first Premier League job.
Howe performed brilliantly to keep Bournemouth in the top division against the odds for four seasons. He was a shrewd operator then and may need to be again, if rumours of a concerted domestic strategy to thwart Newcastle are true.
While rules changed specifically to target one club and one takeover might bring charges of operating as a cartel, a refusal to solve Newcastle’s problems in the transfer market would be harder to pin down. If 19 clubs grouped together and refused to sell to Newcastle, it would be unfair but would also make sense.
Case study: James Tarkowski at Burnley. Buying him could strengthen Newcastle’s defence and keep them up.
Gerrard is the marquee name who could have attracted high profile signings to Newcastle
Yet three are still going down, so if Newcastle are no longer one of them, it increases the chance that Burnley will be — particularly having sold a defensive mainstay. So why do that?
Yet if Newcastle are relegated they are nobody’s problem for at least a year — and maybe more if grand plans are then hampered by strict financial fair play rules in the Championship. This is why even a deal for Jesse Lingard at Manchester United is uncertain.
Why would United, right now, wish to help preserve the status of another club with ambitions to make the big six a big seven? They are struggling to compete as it is.
So Gerrard and Howe’s first tasks are identical: survival. Then it is about the future. Villa are ambitious, but Newcastle’s plans are clearly greater, more expensive and more transformative.
And while Howe has great quality, Gerrard is the marquee name; one that might have changed overnight how the Newcastle takeover was perceived.
It feels like an opportunity gone by. Off the field, as much as on it, Newcastle continue to wait for a
