As a player, Steven Gerrard forged a reputation as an unstoppable force, the captain who inspired his teammates to overcome impossible odds through heart and will. Gerrard led by example, the talisman who made others believe. But, once again, he is faced with the reality that the art of management requires a different set of powers. As his departure from Al-Ettifaq by “mutual consent” – with the club struggling in mid-table amid a run of just two league wins in 14 matches – cuts short his £15m-a-year sojourn in Saudi Arabia, Gerrard the manager appears destined to fall well below the achievements of Gerrard the player.

If taking the position at Al-Ettifaq in the first place, following a dismal end to his fraught spell in charge of Aston Villa, suggested an acceptance that another prominent job in Britain would be hard to come by, an actual resignation from the 12th best team in Saudi Arabia is a further blow to an already damaged managerial reputation. If it is hard to believe Gerrard was convinced he could rebuild his standing as a coach in Saudi, that there were reasons beyond financial to convince him Al-Ettifaq was an astute move to make, he may not have imagined falling to such a low instead.

Yet Al-Ettifaq’s desperation to keep Gerrard at all costs only prolonged his plight. His statement, released as his departure was eventually confirmed, showed he had gone awry. “Overall I have learnt a lot and it’s been a positive experience personally and for my family as well,” Gerrard said. “But football is unpredictable and sometimes things don’t go the way we want.”

Gerrard had been circling the drain for months. Contrary to reports, Gerrard was not sacked in November, after Al-Ettifaq fans turned on their manager following a 2-0 defeat to Al Qadsiah. Al-Ettifaq’s home games may only be attended by a few hundred supporters, but the boos and jeers directed at Gerrard may have been a humbling experience for one of the game’s greats. Instead, the 44-year-old was allowed to battle on as the weary captain of a doomed ship. Gerrard’s call to his former assistant at Rangers, Michael Beale, did not revive their fortunes, either.

But then, Al-Ettifaq did not appear to be too concerned by their lack of progress, not when they could point to their star name in the dugout. Whether Gerrard’s head was in the game seemed immaterial to his position on the touchline. As their manager, he could do no wrong, not even when he admitted to scheduling Al-Ettifaq’s training sessions around Liverpool’s matches so he could watch his former team from afar. Gerrard, who lived with his family in Bahrain after taking charge of Al-Ettifaq, may come to regret accepting work in the Saudi league.

In that regard, Gerrard may mirror his former teammate Jordan Henderson. The reunion of Liverpool captains at Al-Ettifaq, with Gerrard on the touchline and Henderson wearing the armband, was one of the defining early images of the Saudi Pro League’s increased investment in football. Now neither remain. Henderson, having previously positioned himself as an ally of the LGBT+ community, was heavily criticised for his hypocrisy and lasted just six months, terminating his contract to negotiate a move to Ajax in the Netherlands. That, at the very least, was the admission of an error.

Gerrard spoke just as glowingly as Henderson of the Al-Ettifaq “project”, a supposed calling to grow the game. While Henderson turned back, Gerrard, who escaped the criticism levelled at his captain, re-committed. Perhaps Al-Ettifaq needed a statement of their own following Henderson’s swift departure, and Gerrard signed a two-year contract extension last January despite an eight-game winless run in the league. If that suggests how Al-Ettifaq would blindly rally behind Gerrard at all costs, it is a further indictment of how bad things became on the pitch.

Gerrard was said to be hesitant when approached by Al-Ettifaq in the summer of 2023, but an offer to become one of the world’s best-paid coaches proved too good to turn down, even when it moved him further away from realising his managerial ambitions. Perhaps Gerrard was not expected to compete with the big four of Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli, the clubs owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund who can afford and attract the higher calibre of foreign star. Perhaps success for Al-Ettifaq would have been fourth, but they have fallen far below that.

Still, Gerrard could be defiant, determined to turn the season around, but there is a sense that he has now lost the dressing room in his last two jobs, failing to recover from a slide. “I will continue to fight and work to improve the recent results,” he said, after Al-Ettifaq were knocked out of the King’s Cup by lower-league opposition. It was reminiscent of his final stand in charge of Aston Villa. “I’m a fighter,” Gerrard insisted, after the defeat at Fulham in October 2022 that left his side 17th in the Premier League table. He was sacked within the hour, with the ignominy of receiving the news while on the Aston Villa team bus heading home from southwest London.

Indeed, Gerrard’s reputation has not been helped with Villa’s transformation under his successor, Unai Emery. Taking over a side facing a potential relegation battle, Emery propelled Villa to the top four of the Premier League and a return to the Champions League in less than two years, using much of the same squad available to Gerrard. If Gerrard inevitably remains tied to Frank Lampard, 20 years on from the England midfield partnership that simply would not work, what they now share in common is another chance at a Premier League job is surely beyond them. Lampard is now back in work with Coventry City. Perhaps Gerrard can hardly expect to look further than the middle of the Championship.

Gerrard, though, enjoyed his greatest success as a manager in Scotland, not England. In 2021, he led Rangers to their first Premiership title in a decade, ending Celtic’s once-in-a-generation bid for 10 in a row. But it is telling that Rangers may not be so keen to welcome him back, either, even as the Ibrox club struggle and with Philippe Clement still battling pressure. Granted a few years of hindsight, Gerrard’s title with Rangers is attributed as much to Celtic relinquishing their dominance and enduring a torrid season under Neil Lennon. With Brendan Rodgers restoring ascendancy, Gerrard would face a different challenge now.

Rangers, or any other team, would first have to convince themselves that hiring a manager who appeared to have the life sucked from him while struggling in the Saudi Pro League was a good idea. A look at Gerrard’s activity on Instagram conveys a sense of the time that has been lost, his throwback posts to former glories at Liverpool, such as his winning Champions League goal against Olympiacos in front of the Kop in December 2004, recall moments that are now 20 years behind him. Al-Ettifaq simply would not grant Gerrard what he dearly wanted, which was to turn back the time that led to him making such a regretful decision.

It resembles quite the fall for the charismatic, captivating midfield leader once tipped as a potential successor to Jurgen Klopp on the touchline. After all, fiercely loyal to Liverpool as a player, Gerrard’s steps into management suggested he would one day aspire to become the manager at Anfield. Now, any remaining ambitions of coaching at the highest level appear to be the stuff of fantasy.