'I don't want...': Ex-Rangers boss Steven Gerrard in glaring admission over next manager role amid Ibrox links

The last man to lead Rangers to a Scottish Premiership title, Gerrard departed Al-Ettifaq by mutual consent in January after a turbulent 18-month spell in the Saudi Pro League - and was immediately linked with a return to Glasgow when Belgian boss Philippe Clement was sacked just a few weeks later.

Barry Ferguson has been handed the reins at Ibrox on an interim basis until the end of the season, winning four of his six games in charge and leading the club to the last eight of the Europa League. However, talk of a potential summer takeover has resulted in Gerrard emerging of one of the leading contenders to take over at Ibrox next season, alongside former Southampton boss Russell Martin.

Gerrard enjoyed a successful three-year spell at the club previously, culminating in Rangers’ invincible title winning 2020/21 campaign, but his time in Govan was cut short when he was lured away by English Premier League outfit Aston Villa shortly afterwards. He lasted just 11 months in the role, winning just 13 of his 40 games in charge, before landing his role at Al-Ettifaq.

Out of work for the first time since being appointed by Rangers in the summer of 2018, he lifted the lid on his life away from the game and revealed his future plans while speaking with his former teammate Peter Crouch on That Peter Crouch Podcast earlier this week.

"I don't want to be back in work mate,” said Gerrard. “Not at the moment. I'm good...stress free. I’m out of work in terms of the coaching and management, which is obviously 24/7. I'm back in Liverpool for a couple of weeks, seeing friends and family. I’m great, I'm all good.

"I've just came out, so I'm happy with waking up and being free, doing the family stuff. I'm just being free, away from stress and all that. I will go back in at some point, but when it's around the clock, which I've been doing the last 18 months, I just want to be free, I just want to have a game of golf, go down the boozer and have a couple of beers. I want to do normal things that you can't really do when you're coaching. I'm all good.”

Speaking before the Liverpool Legends Match at Anfield, Gerrard also opened up on his love of playing the game, and the pressures of playing for a club like Liverpool, conceding that he struggles to replace the feeling he gets from playing the game as a manager.

"You think coaching and management will fill the void,” Gerrard admits. “It doesn't...it's just not the same. Don't get me wrong, it's a great job to still be around it. But the buzz of still playing...I didn't appreciate it enough. With a bit of maturity and experience, I look back and think I was too intense, a bit too serious.

“But in my shoes, in this city [Liverpool], you do carry it. You feel slightly more responsible. It's difficult to get away from it when you play for the club in the city - it's one of the biggest clubs in the world. Most of my family are Reds. It's even bigger now with social media. But even at the time, I lived and breathed it. It was around the clock. I was too intense, but it is what it is.”

The full episode can be listened to here.