Eros Grezda might’ve been the most expensive financial flop of Steven Gerrard’s Rangers reign – but that hasn’t stopped the Albanian international waxing lyrical about the now Aston Villa boss.
Branding Stevie G as the best coach that he has ever worked with, the 26-year-old winger – who is now turning out for Croatian’s Sibenik – had nothing but good things to say about the Liverpool legend.
Also tipping him to succeed Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, these comments may come as a surprise given the lack of impact Eros actually made on Rangers following a £2m move from NK Osijek in August 2018.
That’s a solid outlay for a Scottish side – especially considering Rangers’ financial situation as the club rebuilt – and Eros Grezda probably stands as the most expensive failure of the Steven Gerrard Ibrox era.
The winger was speaking after his 100th appearance in the Croatian HNL.1, where Grezda scored Sibenik’s only goal in a 4-1 humbling at the hands of NK Lokomotiva.
The ex-Gers star also waxed lyrical about the club and blamed injury for not having the desired impact in Glasgow.
“It was wonderful for me in Rangers, a great club, fans, tradition,” said Grezda [Germanijak].
“Yes, I unfortunately didn’t play the famous Old Firm derby due to injury, and I didn’t compete once. But these are really special matches, the atmosphere that prevails before the derby, in everything.
“Gerard? Legend, the best coach I’ve ever worked with. He lives for football, he completely surrenders to it.
“I see him for sure as the future coach of Liverpool, I hope as the successor of Jurgen Klopp.”
Steven Gerrard told Eros Grezda he’d never play for Rangers again
These comments are also especially interesting given how things ended for Eros Grezda, who only made 17 appearances and scored two goals, both in a 7-1 hammering of Motherwell in November 2018.
After a mixture of injury and failing to settle Eros Grezda was turning out for the Gers B team and in a Challenge Cup match was infamously accused of spitting at a Ballymena United player in 2019.
This proved to be the final straw and Rangers boss Gerrard would then tell Grezda to find a new challenge with the winger never turning out for the Ibrox club again.
“If you behave in that manner then you won’t represent this club any level,” said Gerrard [Herald].
Rangers would then engineer a deal to have the winger return to NK Osijek but the career of Eros Grezda has been on the slide ever since.
Playing in only eight games since rejoining, Grezda was eventually farmed out to Hungarian side Zalaegerszegi (ZTE) in the first half of this season before being released from his contract.
Now starting afresh at Sibenik, Eros Grezda also hasn’t featured for the Albanian national team – for whom he has 13 caps – since leaving Rangers in 2019.
Meanwhile, the scale of Rangers’ achievements in European competition are highlighted by the latest results in the Champions League.
