Scottish Premier League champions Glasgow Rangers manager and Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has been appointed as Aston Villa on a three-and-a-half-year deal,
The former Liverpool captain, 41, leaves the Scottish champions having guided them to a first league title in 10 years last season.
Gerrard replaces Dean Smith, who was sacked on Sunday, November 7th, 2021 after a run of five successive defeats.
Villa are 16th in the Premier League, two points above the relegation zone.
Gerrard joins a Villa side who have not collected a Premier League point since beating Manchester United on 25 September.
His first match in charge will be at home to Brighton after the international break, with matches against top four sides Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea among those to follow before the end of 2021.
He is well known to Villa chief executive Christian Purslow, who was previously managing director at Liverpool.
Under Smith, Villa finished 11th in the Premier League last season but following talisman Jack Grealish’s move to Manchester City in the summer, results started to slip.
The club have picked up just 10 points from the first 11 games of the season – and are experiencing their worst losing run since January to February 2017 in the Championship.
“Aston Villa is a club with a rich history and tradition in English football and I am immensely proud to become its new head coach,” said Gerrard.
“In my conversations with [co-owners] Nassef [Sawiris], Wes [Edens] and the rest of the board, it was apparent how ambitious their plans are for the club and I am looking forward to helping them achieve their aims.”
BBC Sport Scotland understands Villa have paid Rangers £4.5m in compensation.
Gerrard played 710 times for Liverpool, winning nine trophies, and spent a season at MLS side LA Galaxy in 2015 before retiring as a player the following year.
He coached at Liverpool’s youth academy before managing the under-18 team during the 2017-18 season.
Gerrard is England’s fourth-most capped player with 114 international appearances, in which he scored 21 goals.
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