ABERDEEN v RANGERS
MICHAEL GANNON
AS a self-confessed football junkie, Steven Gerrard hasn’t required a crash course in Scottish football rivalries.
The Rangers boss might have made his name in England but in his playing days he would often stick the feet up on a Sunday and watch the action from north of the border.
There’s the obvious one, of course, but no swatting up was required when the fixture list threw up a tasty trip to Aberdeen on the opening day.
Gerrard knows the bitter history and rivalry attached to this encounter. He knows exactly what to expect when he steps out on the Pittodrie touchline.
And he’s relishing the chance to walk in to a Granite City bear pit. It’s a pretty gritty opener but Gerrard said: “Great. I love it. I can’t wait. It wouldn’t have been my first pick if I had done the fixtures...
“Listen, you have to play everyone home and away and some you have to play away more than home.
“We have to accept it and embrace it. It will be juicy, it will be tasty, the rivalry has grown over the years before my time and a lot of the players’ time. We have to go there and try to do our club and our fans proud.
“You are not in the thick of it but there are nerves and the excitement. I love it.
STEVEN GERRARD
“What a start to go in right at the deep end, Aberdeen away, right into that cauldron. Let’s see what we’ve got. It will be a tough game.”
Gerrard has been leaning on Rangers legends but he doesn’t need a history lesson when it comes to Dons dust-ups.
It’s rivalry that took root in the eighties – including the Neil Simpson/Ian Durrant incident – and remains one of Scottish football’s fiercest battles.
Not that Gerrard is a stranger to rivalries.
He said: “I was aware of it. As a player, I was a tackler myself and that is where the rivalry has m.gannon@dailyrecord.co.uk come from. So I’d be very stupid to sit here and point fingers at anyone who threw in a bad tackle. But, you know, this is what happens.
“At Liverpool we had Manchester United, everyone knew about Everton and then the Chelsea rivalry grew and it happens, this is football.
“This is why we love the game and we are all fascinated to see the outcome at the weekend. As a player and a manager, I can’t wait for kick-off.
“I’m looking forward to the stick I’m going to get. I just hope that we are smiling when we come away from it.”
Gerrard has immersed himself in his new gig at Ibrox and admits he welcomes the input from the club’s greats as he gears up for the big kick-off.
He said: “I have had a couple of chats with Walter Smith and we will get round to sitting down and having a lunch.
“In terms of the ex-players, this is an open door for them. They built the place.
“We’re here with a job to do and a responsibility but we want to embrace our ex-players. I had a good chat with Nacho Novo last night, we saw Sasa Papac last week and Richard Gough came in for lunch a few days ago.
“It’s an open door – at the right times. I don’t want them to be coming in and moving the furniture in my office!
“No, listen, they built the club which has been going for an awful long time. We welcome our ex-players in to come and see what we are doing and to educate the players on what this club is about.
“I saw Richard Gough having a really close conversation with Connor Goldson and Nikola