Steven Gerrard has been told that his “dream” of managing Liverpool is “dead” after it was reported that he was “ready” to replace Arne Slot.

Gerrardwas billed as a potential future Liverpool manager after making waves as Rangers boss, but his reputation has declined after struggling at Aston Villa and Al-Ettifaq.

Despite this, Gerrard has been heavily linked with a return to Liverpoolin recent weeks as head coach Slot has come under immense pressure.

Earlier this month, a report claimed Gerrard is ‘waiting’ to be brought in by Liverpool as an ’emergency boss’ and is ‘ready to drop everything’ to replace Slot.

The pressure on Slot has slightly eased after Liverpool produced their best performance of the 2025/26 campaign to beat Galatasaray in the Champions League, and he has now given a light-hearted response to a question about extending his contract beyond 2027.

“Is this how football works? We win on time, and now we’re talking about my contract?” Slot jokingly replied.

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“We didn’t win one time, by the way, although people try to generate that feeling, we won more than everybody thinks in the last one or two months.

“You surprised me with this question, because my focus is completely on Brighton, and three days ago it was more on how can we get something positive out of this season.

“Now, we’ve reached the quarter-final, that’s positive, now we have to make the next step in the league because we don’t have the greatest position in the league.

“It’s going to be a fight until the end of the season, and my focus is completely on that. We don’t talk about contracts of players here, so it would be a surprise if we talk about contracts for managers over here.”

And former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey has explained why he thinks Gerrard’s “dream” of managing his forclub is “dead at the moment”.

“I think that dream is dead at this moment. Well, dying or died,” Heskey told GOAL.

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“You look at how well [Michael] Carrick is doing right now [at Manchester United]. He’d not long come out of Middlesbrough and he’d been in the system for however long. Stevie’s got to really be back in coaching, managing and being on the sidelines.

“I think it’s finding the right club, finding the right system, finding the right coaches that you’ve got to work with because it’s not always about you.

“You’ve got to remember Jurgen [Klopp] was the leader of a pack.

“He wasn’t just that man. He did everything. No, no. He led people to do and he was moving people around and making sure that they were doing certain things and he was giving them autonomy as well to do certain things. It’s not always about you. You’ve just got to get the right people.”

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