Birmingham City told to avoid move for ex-Aston Villa boss | OneFootball

Steven Gerrard has become heavily linked with sides featuring in next season's Championship

Despite a positive end to the Championship season in terms of results and performance levels, we could still see plenty of changes take place at Birmingham City throughout the summer.

This time 12 months ago, plenty of hype and expectation surrounded Blues as a result of their record-breaking season in League One under Chris Davies, where they amassed 111 points and finished 19 clear of Wrexham in second.

However, fast-forward to the here and now, and Davies' men, despite further high-profile and busy recruitment drives in the Championship, have fallen behind the Red Dragons in terms of their league position, as well as failing to really lay a glove on those fighting for a spot in the play-off places.

Given the ambition set out by American investment group, Knighthead Capital Management, in both the short and long-term, this has seen the pressure on Davies' shoulders intensify throughout periods of the season, albeit Tom Wagner has often jumped to the defence of the 41-year-old, who was handed a four-year contract in June 2024 ahead of his maiden full-time managerial role.

It does, still, remain to be seen if he will be allowed to kickstart a third season at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, and one which many would be unlikely to accept another campaign ending in a mid-table finish.

There have been murmerings as to who could replace Davies if an off-season change was to be made, with Football League World exclusively revealing that an ambitious move for Thomas Frank could be plotted.

However, another man linked with a first role in the Championship in his managerial career comes in the form of ex-Aston Villa boss, Steven Gerrard, with FLW's Blues fan pundit, Jason Moore, offering his verdict on whether this could be an avenue which Knighthead go down.

'Horrific' Steven Gerrard claim made as exit talk surrounds Chris Davies at Birmingham City

Indeed, the former Liverpool and England icon has split opinion when it comes to his managerial career thus far, which has seen him take charge of Rangers, Aston Villa and Al-Ettifaq, who he departed in January of last year.

Despite winning the Scottish Premiership at Ibrox in the 2020/21 campaign, the Liverpudlian was unable to win over supporters at Villa Park after an encouraging 'honeymoon' period, and he was dismissed in October 2022 with the B6 side sat 17th in the Premier League after just 11 months in the hotseat.

At present, he has become heavily linked with the potential vacancies at both Burnley and Bristol City, and there could be potential for the managerial role at St. Andrew's to also become vacant in a matter of weeks.

Regardless, Moore has urged Knighthead to look elsewhere, even without a major focus on his links to Villa.

"Absolutely not for me," he told FLW. "I didn't rate him when he was Rangers boss. I thought his football was atrocious.

"Absolutely horrific at Villa, and he couldn't even do it in Saudi.

"Odds-on that he goes somewhere and does a decent job. But, right here, right now, not one for me. I just don't see the appeal of Steven Gerrard," Moore stated.

"If Blues were to bring him in, I'd back him. But, he's not on my list of people where I've thought, 'I wouldn't mind them coming in for Chris Davies'.

"If he goes in at Burnley, as I've seen him linked, I'd happily take Scott Parker," he claimed. "But Gerrard's not for me."

Birmingham City would be taking a huge risk if they moved for Steven Gerrard

It goes without saying that any managerial change comes with risk, but Knighthead would be taking a rather large one if they were to have Gerrard on their shortlist of potential replacements for Davies.

Whilst several players and managers have crossed the divide between Villa Park and St. Andrew's at some stage, it is hard to ignore that such a factor can give the figures associated with such a move a disadvantage, particularly if their initial contributions aren't successful.

Furthermore, Blues have already seen a high-profile managerial appointment fail under Knighthead's watch, having replaced John Eustace with Wayne Rooney in October 2023 - a decision which kickstarted the club's slump to eventual relegation, as the former Manchester United great won just two games out of 15 before being dismissed in January 2024.