GRAEME SOUNESS: Steven Gerrard should follow Claudio Ranieri’s lead in management

It’s been interesting hearing Steven Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers talk about the situations they’re in over the past few months.

Brendan has been saying that Leicester City’s target is 40 points. That kind of comment would have had me leading a delegation to the door of any manager of mine. 

I’d be asking him: ‘Is that how low your opinion of me is? I’m only good enough to just survive? Is that what you think of me and my mates?’ 

Aston Villa axed boss Steven Gerrard after their humiliating 3-0 defeat by Fulham on Thursday

I just wouldn’t be having that. Rodgers is an extremely good talker and wouldn’t be out of place in the Westminster bubble, but I’m not sure he’s got enough credit in the bank to weather this storm.

The noises were very different from Steven. He fronted up and was ready to take the responsibility for Villa’s poor results. He said there was no more he could ask of the owners at Villa, even when Mauricio Pochettino’s name was connected with his own job.

I don’t think he can have any complaints about Villa calling time on him. Time is less your friend now than ever before in our game. Football can’t have the enormous popularity it does without the fierce scrutiny and the unrelenting appetite for drama and change. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle. 

Former Premier League head coach Claudio Ranieri has held 22 managerial jobs in 36 years

Brendan Rodgers remains under immense pressure at Leicester, who sit 19th in the league

You sneeze without a handkerchief in our sport and it’s talked about somewhere. It seems there has to be a drama every day. Leeds United’s Jesse Marsch is now on very thin ice, too, after their defeat at Leicester.

But when the dust settles, I think Steven would do well to adopt the foreigners’ approach — what I call the Claudio Ranieri philosophy of management. Their outlook is: ‘I’ll sign a contract for two or three years but if I’m gone after six months it’s not the end of the world or my career.’ 

Ranieri has had 22 jobs in 36 years and kept half of them for a year or less. There’s no shame attached to not being successful at one club.

There’s certainly no shame for Steven in Villa not working out. If I was advising him, I would say: ‘Take the foreign attitude. It didn’t work for me here so I’ll go and be outstanding somewhere else.’