Steven Gerrard faces Aston Villa transfer reality following NSWE discussions

Steven Gerrard has said football is a 'cruel business' and he wants no guarantees from Aston Villa owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens as the club aims to qualify for European football in the coming years.

Villa are currently sitting in 15th place on the Premier League table with seven games of the 2021/22 campaign left to play. It has been a turbulent third season back in the top-flight following promotion in 2019, after the £100million sale of Jack Grealish last summer and the sacking of Dean Smith in November.

Gerrard was installed as the number one candidate to take over from Smith, and the former Rangers boss claims that his first conversation with the club's owners and officials were vitally important to him accepting the job. Speaking on the Overlap, Gerrard also said that they were all aligned in a mission take Villa back into Europe, which will take serious investment in players and excellent recruitment.

Gerrard said of the summer transfer window approaching: "I don’t want to go on record and say what has been said privately in meetings with the owners, but the key thing for me when I went back to Liverpool as a coach, when I went to Rangers, the important thing is the first chat.

"It’s like, come on then where are we now, let’s be honest, where are we now. What is it going to take and are we all on the same page, are we aligned with that belief and that ambition to have a really good crack at it. I don’t want any guarantees, I don’t expect owners to say to me that you’ve got three or four years without a doubt and you have X amount of money. I don’t think football works like that."

Villa are currently in the midst of their worst losing run since Smith was sacked over five months ago. Recent defeats to