SINKOR SWIM

He won one Champions League, two FA Cups, 114 England caps and made 504 appearances for Liverpool, but if managerial rookie Gerrard is appointed by Rangers it will surely be a case of...

He is learning his trade and I’m not sure if he is ready for the next step

ASKED to plunge into the deep waters of English management two years ago, Steven Gerrard preferred the refuge of the shallow end.

The invitation came from MK Dons, weeks before he returned to the comforting bosom of Liverpool to begin coaching its Under-18s.

‘It would have been learning on the job at the deep end and I probably wasn’t ready for that job,’ admitted Gerrard later.

‘I might have been, but I didn’t want to take any risks, especially when there is no timescale or plan of where I want to be in a certain time, so the Under-18s made sense.’

All of which now raises the question: How ready is Steven Gerrard to manage Rangers now?

A former Liverpool and England captain, the iconic midfielder remains one of British and European football’s biggest names. He won a Champions League, a UEFA Cup, two FA Cups and three League Cups. Yet the concerns are obvious.

At the age of 37, Gerrard has never held a frontline job in management job, let alone managed a club of the magnitude and profile of Rangers. It’s almost 20 years since Celtic handed another Liverpool legend his first crack at management. Out on his ear within eight months, the managerial career of John Barnes never recovered.

Gerrard currently tops the Ibrox managerial shortlist. It’s hard to believe the others are half as intriguing. Or half as risky

prospects as the Anfield legend.

Defeat to Celtic on Sunday would see Rangers’ arch-rivals rack up a seventh straight title. When Gerrard met Ibrox director of football Mark Allen last week, he is reported to have sought assurances over the funds available to halt the Parkhead juggernaut. However much the Rangers board stump up, it’s unlikely to equal the £28million paid to Celtic by UEFA for their most recent Champions League campaign.

Gerrard, then, will ask himself — as he did with MK Dons — if this is the best environment in which to begin a management career.

Taking Liverpool’s Under-18s to Glasgow for a game, Gerrard was glowing on the Ibrox experience, describing it as an ‘iconic stadium’.

‘Just being in the surroundings and the dressing room, it’s a wonderful place,’ he enthused.

That an Under-18s game is different from going head-to-head with his former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers — with the weight and expectation and scrutiny which comes with managing Rangers — goes without saying.

‘He is learning his trade and whether he is ready for the next step, to manage big players, I’m not too sure,’ said former Liverpool attacker Ray Houghton

yesterday. ‘He is the only one who can answer that.

‘We know Rangers is a massive club, there’s no question about it. But there seem to be problems there. I know Graeme Murty very well — he played with me at Reading — and I know he has had some trials and tribulations.

‘If they are looking for a new manager to come in and looking for a big name then, certainly, Gerrard comes into that category.’

Rangers supporters can be forgiven for finding the glitz and glamour of the Gerrard brand an exciting upgrade from the stodgy fare of recent seasons.

But it’s not Steven Gerrard the player Rangers are chasing, it’s Steven Gerrard the manager.

And, right now, no one has the faintest idea how Gerrard would shape up as a frontline manager anywhere, let alone at Ibrox.

After three failed managerial

appointments, the Ibrox board are under growing pressure to get the right man. Gerrard would represent an obvious risk.

Yet Houghton — a boyhood Celtic fan from Castlemilk — believes he might also see an opportunity. The chance to prove himself at a footballing institution and learn the ropes at a big club under intense pressure. If he can handle the turmoil at Rangers, goes the thinking, he can handle anything.

‘There is an incredible atmosphere between Celtic and Rangers,’ said Houghton.

‘Celtic, for the last few seasons, have had things all their own way.

‘This will be the seventh league title in a row when they win it.

‘And Rangers want to get back to that level. But it’s not just going to be a change of manager that’s going to do that.

‘They need to bring in new players and Steven, if he wants to become Rangers manager, would

find it easier to attract the players because of his reputation.’

That Gerrard would raise the profile of Rangers and place the club back on the European map can hardly be disputed.

When Graeme Souness arrived at Ibrox in 1986, he attracted players to Glasgow who might otherwise have been out of reach.

Yet his cause was aided by a ban on English clubs playing in Europe and a Celtic weakened by boardroom ineptitude and complacency.

Gerrard would enter a different landscape. One where his former boss Rodgers is closing in on his fifth successive trophy as Celtic manager, with a sixth in prospect in next month’s Scottish Cup final. Regardless of his age, experience, or reputation, there are risks for whoever takes on Rangers next.

‘There’s no doubt about that,’ added Houghton. ‘But then you have the flip side of that.

‘If he is a success there and can handle the pressure, then it will bode well for his future as a manager.

‘You look at Brendan Rodgers at the moment. There has been talk in the papers over the last few days since Arsene Wenger said he was leaving at the end of the season, of Brendan going to Arsenal.

‘If you are a success and do well, people will be looking at you, all the top clubs, because they know you can handle pressure.

‘That’s what it’s about as a manager. Making bold, big decisions and handling big players, handling big situations and it doesn’t come much bigger than when you are up in Scotland with the Celtic and Rangers rivalry.

‘If you can handle it there, you can handle anywhere...’