BARRY FERGUSON
IF Steven Gerrard has learned anything over these last nine months then he’ll know by now the world stops when Rangers lose a football match.
So when the season is effectively over in the middle of March? Well, that’s when all hell breaks loose as it has done since Aberdeen knocked my old club out of the Scottish Cup at Ibrox on Tuesday night.
There’s been a lot said and written about Gerrard in the last couple of days – most of it has been hysterical, knee-jerk stuff – but none of it will have come as a surprise to the man himself. When he took on this job he did it with his eyes wide open. He knew how high the stakes would be.
So he shouldn’t pay it too much attention because this is part and parcel of life at a club like Rangers.
If you’re not delivering then you’re the first one in the firing line and Gerrard is long enough in the tooth to know the manager is always front and centre when the stick starts flying.
He’ll know there are fans out there who are already calling for his head and, while that will hurt his pride, I’d imagine he’d be expecting nothing less. This is Rangers we’re talking about here. Failure should never be tolerated.
And that’s why, as far as I’m concerned, he is absolutely the right man for this job.
I’ve paid close attention to the way he’s handled himself in his first season as a manager and I’ve been highly impressed.
Not just because he talks a good game or because of the way he’s trying to get his team to play but – this is the important bit – because of the standards he is trying to instil.
He might be new to the club but it’s like he’s been at Ibrox all his life.
Let’s be honest here, when he arrived last summer the place was a laughing stock and that was all because of the way it had been run by people who had no feeling for or identity with the way Rangers have always been.
But Gerrard gets it. He got it from the moment he walked through those doors.
People are now scrutinising his performance, that’s understandable. The worry will be here’s another in the long list of great players who couldn’t hack it in management. But you can count me out of that. Yes, results have not been what he would have hoped for and there will be a lot of anger in the air for a good while after the performance against Aberdeen.
But you have to look beyond the red mist and see the improvements that have been made.
To stop him in his tracks so soon into the job would be a major mistake. I’m convinced when I say I really don’t think he’s that far away from taking Rangers back to the top.
What he needs now is for Dave King and the board to show a bit of faith. To keep their nerve in the face of the backlash and dig even deeper into their pockets to help him get over the next hurdle.
It’s not as if he needs them to finance another huge summer rebuild. That hard work was done last summer which was one of the major reasons this season has been so up and down.
You can’t bring in 10 or 20 players and expect it all to click at once.
But now this group has been together Gerrard will have had time to work out which of these players can’t match his own standards.
None of them will have any grounds for complaint if they get the tap on the shoulder when the season is over and are told their time is up.
Once he’s worked out the players he can rely upon he can go back to his board and tell them he needs three or four new signings for next season. Not shirt fillers or squad members but real quality who will walk into his starting line-up.
They should also be players he chooses. It shouldn’t be left to Mark Allen or whoever else to decide who can make it in a Rangers shirt.
That’s entirely the manager’s job and I know who I’d trust when it came to identifying a proper player so Gerrard must be given complete control of his own recruitment.
After all it will be his head on the block and he’ll know that.
Recruitment is the most important part of any club and Rangers have been hit or miss over the last two windows. That’s down to a lot of factors not least because so many new arrivals were needed. Then you had Steve Davis and Jermain Defoe brought in as big hitters in January and neither of them have lived up to the billing.
But both will look different players after a full pre-season and I fully expect them to become a major part of the next big step under Gerrard.
Ryan Kent is another who should stay. If Gerrard can get him for £3m-4million, as quoted, that’s smart business. That kid has proved he belongs in a Rangers shirt so he would be buying tried and tested.
But the manager still needs to increase quality in other areas. One more striker, one more midfielder and another defender. Guys who can provide the kind of backbone that was missing the other night.
These players have let him down one time too many and Tuesday was the last straw for a few of them.
Before that game all they had to think about was the colour of the shirts waiting for them at Hampden. If that’s not enough motivation for you then what is?
You could see by the look in his face what Gerrard thought. No wonder he didn’t go into the dressing room because he’d have said things he’d have regretted. He knows too many don’t have the drive or the character to cut it at Rangers.
For a first time manager he’s learning on the job. The lessons he takes from Tuesday might make all the difference to his second season. table was crucial in persuading players to join the club in January.
The former Coleraine boss said: “When I took the St Mirren job I was aware January was going to be very important.
“At that stage I knew we had to get to the New Year and still be in touch.
“The players we’ve brought in knew we were in a battle and that there was something to play for.
“They wouldn’t have come if we’d been 10 points adrift at the bottom.”
Kearney’s men will be back hunting points in Perth tomorrow and he admits he’s been greatly encouraged by his side’s last few displays.
He said: “There’s been a huge turnaround for us, we’ve found a good level and it’s just a matter of sustaining that for these last nine games. Our recent performances have been good, that’s given everyone a shot in the arm.”