Steven Gerrard was all smiles as he sported a scarf in Saudi Arabia’s colours over a traditional white thawb robe with matching Arab headdress.
It was July 2023, a few weeks into Gerrard’s Middle Eastern adventure, and shortly after, Jordan Henderson followed him along the path to Al Ettifaq, a relatively unknown Saudi Pro League (SPL) club, where the 43-year-old former England captain began to look the part.
Already the money was spinning and Gerrard, layered in local clothing for National Day, was very much in the groove. He spoke in Arabic at his unveiling as Al Ettifaq’s manager and talked about helping the SPL to grow. Having a Liverpool legend on board — and then recruiting the same club’s most recent captain in Henderson — was a big deal for the side from Dammam, Saudi’s fifth-biggest city. The future was supposed to be bright.
But slowly, the excitement at Al Ettifaq began to fade as the money dried up and the competition grew fierce. While the real big boys in the Saudi top flight, who already boasted superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema, were signing current internationals such as Moussa Diaby and Ivan Toney last summer, Al Ettifaq were bringing in Fulham’s No 2 goalkeeper Marek Rodak on a free transfer and struggling to strengthen elsewhere.
Gradually, Gerrard began to fall out of love with the project and although his exit this week came as a shock to some of those close to him, it was clear to others that leaving had been on his mind for some time.
The Athletic has spoken to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, who asked to remain anonymous to protect their positions, to build a picture of why Gerrard’s reign fell apart. Setbacks including staff changes, injuries to key players and bad periods of form were all cited as factors.
Gerrard could not lift Al Ettifaq into the Saudi top four (Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
The cold, hard facts were similar in some ways to his previous managerial departure, from Aston Villa of the Premier League in October 2022, where form had also disintegrated and the club’s league position became a cause of concern.
The final parting of ways, however, was different to that painful Villa experience. Neither was it a sharp reaction to a single defeat or the consequence of a fanbase hounding him out that put an end to his 18 months at Al Ettifaq.
Instead, his exit was mutually agreed and amicable.
Gerrard had engaged in lengthy talks over his future at different periods of his tenure as his frustration around the squad-building process grew. The language used by both parties in their public statements reads like an attempt to muzzle any rancour over his reign.
“He changed the club for the better and that will never be forgotten,” said Al Ettifaq president Samer Al Misehal. The statement from Gerrard, meanwhile, read: “I have no doubt that the work being done will bring success in the future.”
The bottom line, however, is that Gerrard left with the club languishing in 12th spot in the 18-team table and halfway through what is looking like a disastrous season.
It was not the ending both parties were hoping for when he arrived to much fanfare.
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When Al Ettifaq first approached Gerrard for the head coach’s role, he had doubts. It was only after a positive second meeting where he listened to Saudi ministers’ ambitious plans to revolutionise the game in the oil-rich Gulf country that he began to lean in.
Having turned down opportunities in England after his miserable Villa experience, which lasted just 11 months, the lure of working on a new project in a league where the overall momentum was building appealed. A huge salary — widely reported to be worth around £15million ($18.6m at the current exchange rate) a year — and significant backing for his support team was a major pull, but perhaps more important than his own financial security was just how much he would have to spend on assembling a team capable of finishing high up the SPL table.
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It may sound ambitious given their sixth-place finish in 2023-24, a massive 48 points behind champions Al Hilal over 34 games, and the struggles that followed this season, but Gerrard believed he could push Al Ettifaq into the top four. Club officials believed it was a possibility, too.
What quickly became clear, though, was they could not compete with the SPL clubs backed by much bigger budgets and that began to grind the former Liverpool and England midfielder down.
Although the kingdom’s second-largest petrochemicals company, SABIC, has backed Al Ettifaq with enough funds to land Gerrard, his backroom team and several high-profile overseas signings, there remained a stark contrast between the SPL’s top four teams, supported by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), and the rest.
PIF, which holds an 80 per cent stake in Premier League club Newcastle United, controls 75 per cent of Al Ittihad, Al Ahli, Al Hilal and Al Nassr, while the remaining 25 per cent is controlled by a non-profit organisation.
While Al Ettifaq’s signings of Henderson, Demarai Gray, Georginio Wijnaldum, Jack Hendry and Dembele initially looked like good business, those moves paled in comparison to the recruitment elsewhere.
Henderson did not last long at Al Ettifaq (Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
It was therefore on Gerrard to get the team punching above their weight and at the same time rebuild his own career after it had taken a knock.
Having lost his job at Villa, he embarked on a period of reflection to look at why they could only manage four wins in the final 22 Premier League games under him after starting so positively when he arrived in November 2021.
Those who witnessed his work in England’s West Midlands talk about a man who wanted to win so much that his passion almost became unhealthy. There were issues to contend with in the final months at Villa, including injuries to new signings Diego Carlos and Boubacar Kamara when so much hope had been placed on the pair. Other problems, including the below-par performances from Gerrard’s big signing Philippe Coutinho and the decision to make John McGinn captain ahead of previous skipper Tyrone Mings could have been handled better.
But Gerrard showed previously in the Scottish Premier League, where he led Rangers to the title during an “invincible” unbeaten league season in 2020-21 that halted nine years of domination by arch-rivals Celtic, that he was a manager with momentum and if it wasn’t Villa, another Premier League club would have given him an opportunity to take the next step in his coaching career.
He needed a fresh start and the project at Al Ettifaq allowed him to clear his head and go “all in” on a new challenge.
Living in Dammam, a port city in eastern Saudi Arabia, was not an option as he wanted somewhere more suitable for his family. Gerrard opted for a more upmarket location outside Saudi’s borders in the nearby nation of Bahrain, an hour-and-a-half commute away.
Still, he tried to buy into the local culture and committed his time to more than just first-team training. He had genuine enthusiasm for the idea of building the whole football club from the bottom upwards, not only improving the youth system and raising coaching standards, but helping with infrastructure improvements. It was clear early on that Gerrard wanted to create an elite environment.
Sometimes, this led to frustrations.
When Al Ettifaq were signing Henderson, Hendry and Dembele during an extended summer training camp in Croatia, Gerrard was annoyed at the standard of the provided facilities, which included bumpy pitches and a lack of privacy around the hotel and spa resort the team were staying in.
The facilities at Al Ettifaq, however, were akin to Premier League level, and with a state-of-the-art gym, an impressive training ground and a new 15,000-capacity stadium, the players and staff enjoyed the surroundings. Most of them were happy working with Gerrard and respected his standing as a legendary figure of the game’s previous generation. Gerrard was out on the grass with them every day trying to implement his methods and at the end of every training session, the players would shake his hand.
Improvements off the pitch did not translate into success on it, though, and after a decent start to that first season, the setbacks started to add up. Henderson lasted just a matter of months before a January move to Dutch club Ajax and Gerrard was unable to find a suitable midfield replacement, with Ivory Coast international Seko Fofana struggling to hit top form.
Ian Foster, who left the England Under-20s setup to join Gerrard’s coaching staff, also left to manage Plymouth Argyle in England’s second-tier Championship that same month. Foster’s departure during the SPL’s winter break came after a 12-game winless run that culminated in Al Ettifaq drawing 1-1 at home against the league’s last-placed team, Al Hazem.
Gerrard, who discussed the performance and result with club officials after each match, knew more was required, but also that he needed help.
Gerrard wanted more backing in the transfer market (Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
In a leap of faith from the club, he was handed a two-year contract extension midway through last season, with former Charlton Athletic manager Dean Holden arriving as his new assistant soon after. Another familiar face, Mark Allen, the man who hired Gerrard during his time as director of football at Rangers, also joined as sporting director, although both would leave again just nine months later.
While securing a sixth-placed finish was seen as a satisfactory outcome in Gerrard’s first season, the huge points gap to title winners Al Hilal highlighted the bigger issue. A disappointing start to 2024-25 did little to boost the mood.
Another familiar face from his past, Liverpool’s long-time goalkeeping coach John Achterberg, came in alongside assistant Andy Firth to bump up the size of the coaching team, but the recruitment of players became exhausting as cash was not as forthcoming as in the previous summer.
Al Ettifaq signed Rodak on a free but were unable to get other transfers over the line. Even the deal for Joao Costa from Roma — their window’s only standout overseas arrival — was left until right before the deadline. The Brazilian winger is yet to hit the heights expected of him, although he is only 19 years old and made just five first-team appearances for Roma.
Perhaps their most telling transfer was one which attracted little attention in Europe — that of midfielder Ali Abdullah Hazazi, who rejoined Al Ettifaq’s local rivals, Al Qadsiah of Khobar, after six years at the club. Al Ettifaq used to be able to sign the best players from Al Qadsiah, but here was a 30-year-old midfielder moving in the opposite direction for around £4million to help balance the books.
The added pressure of Al Qadsiah’s spending — they are backed by the national oil company, Aramco, with their promotion back to the SPL last summer likened by some league figures to Manchester City’s emergence as a financial superpower in the Premier League — certainly played into the decision around Gerrard’s exit.
With fans perturbed at seeing their club falling behind their rivals on and off the field, an equally frustrated Gerrard discussed his position after the summer transfer window.
He was seriously considering a change, having hoped for better backing, but with Al Ettifaq citing a move from the national Ministry of Sport to make domestic football more sustainable, greater spending simply could not be countenanced. Ultimately, however, he was convinced to stay.
Fans show their support for Gerrard in November’s game against local rivals Al Qadsiah (Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
In what appeared to be a final roll of the dice in November, Gerrard called on another trusted ally, Michael Beale, to work alongside him in a similar role to when the pair were at Rangers and then Villa.
Beale, who alongside the technical coach Tom Culshaw and analysts Ray Shearwood and Jonathan Robinson is also leaving the club, helped spark an upturn, but when Scotland international centre-back Hendry sustained a long-term knee injury in September, that weakened the defence and results again dipped.
The only positive in a dreadful season so far is that Al Ettifaq are into the semi-finals of the Gulf Club Champions League, a competition for teams from eight countries in that region, but that was not enough to keep Gerrard engaged. He was exasperated at the lack of competitiveness from his team in the SPL, so the next time his future came up for discussion, the club agreed that a mutual termination was the best way forward.
A fresh start was needed for both parties and there was little haggling over the terms of his departure. Gerrard didn’t get the chance to say a proper goodbye to the squad as his exit was confirmed after he was already out of the building for the day.
The man who offered Al Ettifaq so much hope and was determined to make his Saudi experience one to remember was gone, with little to show for his efforts. Achterberg, Firth and fitness coach Jordan Milsom have been offered the chance to stay on under Gerrard’s replacement Saad Al-Shehri, who was previously Saudi Arabia Under-23s coach.
As for Gerrard, what he does next is open to debate.
It was not as if he did not settle during his 18 months in the Middle East, he just lost the spark. It seems unlikely a Premier League club will offer him a route back to the top flight in the short term, though, so now Gerrard may have no option but to lower his sights if he wants to rehabilitate his reputation.
Nobody can dispute his desire to prove himself in the coaching arena and his reputation as a giant of the game from his playing days remains undimmed. He still wants a career as a manager, but as the second and third of his three first-team jobs have proved, what he could do with the ball at his feet is no guarantee of success in the dugout.
He’ll have to pick his next position carefully to get back on track.
Additional reporting: James Pearce
(Top photo: Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
