Richard Keys has told Steven Gerrard to "swerve" any upcoming legends games if he wants to manage in the Premier League again.
The 42-year-old former Liverpool captain, who has been without a job in management since October, when he was sacked by Aston Villa, has made his feelings clear about a potential return to England's top flight.
When asked whether he would like to return to management, he told BT Sport in January: "I wish I still was. I think when you're around the pitch, in the stadium, you see the teams come in, you get that buzz of a feeling of a matchday."
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Gerrard was said to be 'very keen' on the Leeds job after Jesse Marsch was sacked following a poor run of form, but they moved to hire Javi Gracia.
Since that appointment, Gerrard has returned to a punditry role with Channel 4 for England's Euro 2024 qualifiers and has featured for Liverpool Legends in a clash against Celtic Legends.
He captained the team to a 2-0 win on Saturday afternoon, opening the scoring with a penalty before celebrating in front of the travelling Celtic support.
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His appearance at Anfield for the game was discussed by many, including pundit Richard Keys, who suggested the former Liverpool midfielder should ditch his affiliation with the club if he wants to resurrect his managerial career.
Keys also said Gerrard shouldn't have taunted the Celtic fans after scoring.
In his latest blog post, Keys wrote: "If Gerrard still has ambitions to manage/coach in the PL I really think he should be swerving the legends games - the likes of which we saw at Anfield last weekend.
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"Gerrard needs to distance himself from Liverpool for a few years more yet. One of his biggest problems at Villa was that their fans largely saw him as Liverpool’s captain. It was ok to start with - Gerrard said all the right things, but as time progressed and things weren’t going so well, it was an easy stick to beat him with - even though he’d had those two years at Rangers as well.
"Perhaps he’s given up believing that he’s got a coaching career, but if he hasn’t, I firmly believe he’s definitely got to give those games up. Either way - he shouldn’t be taunting Celtic fans as he did after scoring. I know it’s hard and I know they’d been on at him all through the game - but he’s a big boy and he knows it’s all part of the gig.
"Those fans had paid their money to charity (the players always get paid btw) and so they had a right to get involved in the occasion.
Thoughts on Gerrard's managerial career?
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Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Steven Gerrard, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Premier League