Steven Gerrard has been used to sell-out stadiums everywhere he has been, both as a player and a manager, however, life in Saudi Arabia at Al Ettifaq, isn’t quite living up to expectations.
The Saudi Pro League followed up the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo by offering life-changing salaries to already mega-rich footballers to join the revolution but it has been something of a slow burner.
With the majority of teams still made up predominantly of local players, Steven Gerrard, who became the world’s fourth best paid manager, is having to make do with his Al Ettifaq side playing in front of less than capacity crowds, as reported by MercaFoot.
Steven Gerrard gets Al Ettifaq moment of realisation
Playing against Al Riyadh at the weekend, the former Gers boss saw his side fall to a disappointing 1-0 loss.
His squad doesn’t quite have the likes of Ronaldo or Karim Benzema, instead Jordan Henderson, Jack Hendry, Gini Wijnaldum and Demarai Gray are his “high profile” players.
Gerrard was also linked with a move for James Tavernier but nothing ever materialised.
It almost makes sense that the attendance was only 696 at the weekend.
For context, this is lower than Bonnyrigg Rose’s average for the season and only just above Peterhead and Elgin City, all in the SPFL’s fourth tier.
The novelty of the monthly salary will soon wear off if the standard of football doesn’t improve and stadiums are sitting empty every other week.
Steven Gerrard always spoke about missing the intensity and emotion of playing but managing a club like Rangers almost filled the gap, Al Ettifaq is nowhere near that level and there will come a point where he realises that he is missing out.
It’s all fair and well having a few players who have come from Europe on big money but, if there is no soul, no atmosphere and no excitement, why would individuals like Steven Gerrard stick around?
He’d get more excitement in Scotland’s League 2 managing Bonnyrigg Rose, Peterhead or Elgin City.
He’d probably get bigger crowds too.
