I absolutely love Alonso, he’s a truly classy, intelligent, refined gentleman and I think in years to come he’ll be a great manager.
But it’s absolutely ridiculous comparing him to Gerrard so far he’s well behind in progress and development.
It would be like having to choose our new default starting creative midfielder and people arguing Musialowski should be chosen instead of Harvey Elliott.
Not all young, exciting prospects are equal or at the same stage of development.
Alonso is at least one successful move and successful reign behind Gerrard.
The pluses for Gerrard are;
1; He’s fully versed and accepted within the culture of the club, he’d “get” us from day 1 and be given time by the fans if there are any hiccups.
2; He’s been involved in the extended coaching set up currently in place here and experienced what has been set up and put in place during the Klopp era, he’s almost certainly going to have done work with Klopp.
3; He’s world famous, players will still want to work with our manager because of what they could learn from him from his playing days/abilities. He’s widely respected, maybe even more abroad than he’s appreciated in England.
4; He’s over achieved as a manager, doing far better at Rangers than could have been expected.
5; His team plays in an acceptable way to how we would want things to go after Klopp. Tactically he is OK here.
6; He’s experienced the pressure of being in charge at a demanding club with high expectations and standards.
7; He’s successfully managed a team through title challenges and won a title.
There is no other manager in the world who hits all those pluses. *If he manages at Villa and can show good football and achieve good results then that’s corroboration that his time at Rangers isn’t a one off blip and he is the real deal as well as proof that he can deal with the hotbed of the Premier League.
Edit: *when was typing as it was being announced.