Perhaps it was the sight of Piers Morgan in Saudi Arabia that prompted Steven Gerrard to leave the country. Or maybe it was the opposite, and the presence of the former broadcaster – in Riyadh to watch his mate Cristiano Ronaldo – provoked pangs of homesickness. Or did the 44-year-old even choose to go at all? Reports in England suggested the Liverpool legend wanted out for personal reasons, while those coming out of Saudi Arabia suggested that Al-Ettifaq, languishing 12th in the Pro League, made the move.

“I want to express my gratitude to the club, the players, the fans, and everyone involved for the opportunity and the support during my time here,” Gerrard said on Thursday as his departure was confirmed. “From the first day I was warmly welcomed and I have enjoyed the chance to work in a new country with a different culture. So overall I have learnt a lot and it’s been a positive experience personally and for my family as well. But football is unpredictable and sometimes things don’t go the way we want.”

It doesn’t really matter. After 18 months of mostly underwhelming results, interspersed by the occasional promising sign, it was unlikely to go on for much longer regardless, though with Al-Ettifaq making more than 30 coaching changes this century alone, Gerrard had more staying power than many of his predecessors.

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Coaches come and go in Saudi Arabia and just like with Nuno Espírito Santo, fired by Al-Ittihad in November 2023 after a similar length of time despite winning the Jeddah club’s first title for 14 years, Gerrard’s coaching career will not be defined by what happened to him at Al-Ettifaq. It won’t help his reputation though. As he leaves, perhaps the positive is that living and working in a different country (literally so as he reportedly stayed in Bahrain, making – as many expats in that part of the world do – the short commute into eastern Saudi Arabia) and in a very different football culture could turn out to be a significant learning experience for a coach who is still relatively young.

For those that do look at what happened on the pitch, however, there was not much to suggest Gerrard’s time at Aston Villa, that ended in October 2022 with the club barely above the relegation zone, was a blip. The first season, from August 2023 to the following May, ended with Al-Ettifaq in sixth, a place higher than the previous campaign when they had been a little lucky to be seventh. For a club that last won serious silverware in the last century but had invested in new foreign players to compliment a solid Saudi contingent, that seemed about right.

Gerrard brought in stars such as his fellow former Liverpool midfielder Gini Wijnaldum and the French striker Moussa Dembélé from Lyon. There was a good start, including a famous win over Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, but when Dembélé was injured, goals became hard to come by.

Rumours that an early dismissal could be on the cards turned out to be wrong as, in January 2024, Gerrard was handed a two-year contract extension, leading to more signings, such as that of the former Fulham, Udinese and Lens midfielder Seko Fofana. The first campaign subsequently ended in satisfactory fashion.

The second season started with three straight wins. Then the goals dried up again and Al-Ettifaq started to sink down the table. An October defeat in the King’s Cup, the club’s only real chance of silverware, against second-tier Al-Jabalain went down badly and Gerrard was booed off a few days later after a home defeat at the hands of local rivals Al-Qadsiah. Fans said he was not getting the best out of his players and seemingly had little idea of how to reverse the slump.

What also didn’t help was an interview Around the same time in which Gerrard said he scheduled training around the viewing of Liverpool games. It may have been a joke, and he may have quickly explained he was fully committed to the cause, but it was not well-received in Dammam given the poor results at the time. Gerrard leaves with Al-Ettifaq only five points above the relegation zone. The top four is 16 points away.

The Knights have spent considerable amounts but they do not have the same Public Investment Fund financial backing of the giants from Riyadh (Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr) and Jeddah (Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli). It is, however, striking how their local rivals Al-Qadsiah have stormed into third place and, while the newly promoted club may be backed by the Saudi oil giant Aramco, they have no megastars (unless you count an ageing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang) and have been fishing in similar waters to Al-Ettifaq. That two of the league’s smaller teams, and Al-Riyadh and Al-Khaleej, are going well in seventh and eighth also does not reflect well on Al-Ettifaq, even if results and attacking performances of late had started to show signs of improvement.

In truth the surprise is not that it has ended but that it lasted as long as it did. And whether Gerrard jumped or was pushed, the fact is that for the second time in succession he leaves behind a club worrying about relegation.