Neil said this on the last episode of the "For the Love of Paul McGrath" podcast which I reckon is probably true. The club are gonna keep Gerard in the job till they can nail down the new manager. The longer they leave the gap between firing Gerard and hiring the new guy, the longer the club will be crucified for "not giving Gerard more time" by all his mates in the media. If they can shorten that gap as much as possible, the focus will be on the new guy.
As much as we don't care about that, perception definitely matters to the club.