Sutty: Stevie G will quit if Bayer deliver Euro KO

SCOTTISH CUP CRAIG SWAN

BY MARK McDOUGALL CHRIS SUTTON believes Steven Gerrard will walk away from the Rangers job if they are knocked out of the Europa League by Bayer Leverkusen.

The Rangers boss has spoken about needing to take stock of what happens next after being knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Hearts on Saturday night.

But Record Sport columnist Sutton said: “Is that what the players want to be hearing? Is that what the fans want to be hearing? That the manager is going to walk away because he lost a cup game? He can’t walk away from Europe. He won’t walk away from Europe.

“He’ll take charge of the Leverkusen games and then he’ll walk. If the European specialists go out then he’ll go.”

Gerrard dropped Alfredo Morelos after he arrived back from a trip to Colombia late. It’s the second time this season and he was on the bench for the previous game against Hamilton.

When asked about Morelos, Sutton said: “I was surprised he didn’t put him on the bench, I understand why he left him out of the squad.

“But he needs to win a trophy in Scotland and he hasn’t done that. His star man has let him down once again.

“People talk about Morelos being a great player, great players win you trophies. Great players turn up of the big occasions, he can’t even turn up for training. How many more times can Morelos let him down?”

DEVASTATED James Tavernier last night admitted Rangers are missing mental strength.

The shellshocked skipper was back in a familiar place following the Scottish Cup defeat to Hearts.

Tavernier has been there before, as captain, the one who has to speak out on behalf of the group.

He’s the one who has to face the music and the record that was playing has been sounded time and again in 2020.

Tavernier spoke about it at Rugby Park when the wheels started falling off the squad’s title challenge.

With the final trophy of the season now out of reach and another barren campaign on the horizon for the club, the defender had to go back over old ground in the wake of Tynecastle.

Tavernier and his team-mates knew what to expect. Having failed to win on two previous visits to Gorgie this term the pitfalls and challenges were crystal clear.

With the title bid fizzled out this was the one remaining big opportunity to get their hands on some silverware. Actually, not just a big opportunity but the last opportunity. It was a test of resolve as much as ability.

Returning from Braga when they performed as the underdogs to pull off another major European result, this was a different examination and one successful Rangers teams have to pass.

Yet they failed – again. Under the pressure and stress of expectancy, Steven Gerrard’s team couldn’t deliver. Tavernier knew it. As hard as it must have been to confess it, he really had little option.

The evidence could not be ignored as he said: “It’s clear as day the mental strength wasn’t there.

“We didn’t back Braga up with a performance. There’s not much I can say on that.

“We can only show we have it by winning games. Clearly against Hearts we didn’t show it enough.”

From that the next obvious question for the Rangers fans to have answered is why. Gerrard has spoken time and again about learning lessons and so have the players.

The manager’s approach has been scrutinised. In January he sat at the same table inside the same stadium after the 2-1 Premiership loss to the same bottom-of-thec.swan@dailyrecord.co.uk table team and questioned the bottle of the players.

The gaffer’s critics say if you raise doubts about whether they have the stomach for a fight how do you expect them to react when they are asked the question again on the same patch?

It was put to Tavernier those harsh lessons of the past are not being learned and he said: “We knew what was coming. You need to grab it with both hands and respond to it.

“But I don’t think we tested the keeper once in the entire game. I don’t think he even had a shot to save.

“It was not good enough from the team in general. In the past we’ve shown it in certain games but when Hearts sniffed blood from the getgo we struggled to deal with it.

“In the first half of the season when teams dropped off us we were scoring five or six goals. Then we come to the second part of the season and we’re not gritty enough and able to see out games.

“I don’t know what it comes down to. We proved we can do it last midweek but in the second part of the season we have lacked consistency levels.

“Since the break we’ve let ourselves down too many times and this is another one.”

At this stage Tavernier and his team-mates now have to look at where the season goes from here.

The squad has a last-16 tie in the Europa League to tackle against Bayer Leverkusen but in terms of winning silverware and ending the trophy drought, the campaign appears to be over.

Trailing Celtic by 12 points in the title race, it’s a forlorn hope they can overhaul that deficit. Gerrard is also having a long think about where he and the squad stand at the moment.

So Tavernier and his team-mates simply have to respond in the right manner over the remaining three months of the term to salvage pride.

The captain says recovery can only start when honest assessments are made and said: “We’re devastated. The lads are finding it hard to swallow.

“We’ve let the club down, the fans down, the gaffer down and ourselves down.

“Going from such a high during the week against a very good team to failing to answer questions at a place where we’ve struggled during the season. We’ve not produced a performance good enough to put us into the semi-final.

“This has happened two years in a row now as we were knocked out by Aberdeen last year. It has happened again this year and it’s hard to take.

“All the boys are devastated. It’s something we don’t mean to do but we really need to look hard at ourselves. W e need to sit down together and see what th e right answers are. “It has happened too many times now and we need a long, hard look at ourselves.”