Steven Gerrard on Thursday had only just finished telling interviewers that he would fight on at Aston Villa after a 3-0 loss to Fulham minutes earlier when the announcement came that he was fired.
“Aston Villa Football Club can confirm that head coach Steven Gerrard has left the club with immediate effect,” the club said in a statement. “We would like to thank Steven for his hard work and commitment and wish him well for the future.”
It felt particularly cruel that Gerrard would be thrust in front of the cameras to defend his position if, as appears, his fate had already been sealed by the loss minutes earlier.
Photo: AFP
Villa fans had called for him to be fired after a result that left his team just above the relegation zone.
“It’s tough,” he told Amazon Prime. “I’m a man, I accept it, I feel their frustrations, I’m frustrated. It was a tough night for me personally.”
“We will see what happens. I’m a fighter, I will never, ever quit anything whether it’s football or in life,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
Fulham fans had mercilessly taunted Gerrard with chants of “Sacked in the morning.”
They underestimated the speed with which Villa would act — ending his reign after less than a year in charge amid growing speculation that Mauricio Pochettino is the dream target to replace him.
It has been a rapid fall from grace for Gerrard, who led Rangers to the Scottish title in his first job in management and was tipped to take charge at his beloved Liverpool in the future.
It could be a long way back for him now after failing to arrest Villa’s slide, which began in March and has resulted in just four wins in their past 22 Premier League games.
His team looked devoid of confidence against Fulham and defeat left them level on points with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 18th.
Harrison Reed and Aleksandar Mitrovic put the home team in control on a night when Douglas Luiz was sent off and Tyrone Mings also put one into his own net.
While Gerrard’s reign has come to a sorry end, his former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is providing a glimmer of hope to Leicester City fans, who were fearing the worst just a few weeks ago.
A 2-0 win against Leeds United moved Rodgers’ team off the foot of the Premier League and to within a point of Villa.
For the first time this season, Leicester are looking upward in hope, rather than despondency.
Seven of their eight points this term have been picked up in their past four games to suggest that Rodgers has turned a corner after such a desperate start.
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
RSS