KINDRED SPIRITS
Steven Gerrard once saw Gary McAllister as a threat, but the new Ibrox management team have grown to become...
DESPERATE to keep his place in the Liverpool team, an up-and-coming 20-year-old Steven Gerrard was dismayed to learn of the impending arrival of 35-year-old midfielder Gary McAllister back in the summer of 2000.
‘I was devastated, to be honest,’ Gerrard previously recalled. ‘I was thinking he’s going to come and take my place.’
Despite that uncertain beginning and the 15-year age gap between the pair, it was to prove the start of an unlikely friendship that began to blossom over the course of McAllister’s remarkable maiden season at Anfield.
With the League Cup and FA Cup in the bag, the former Leeds United skipper was named Man of the Match in the 2001 UEFA Cup Final, scoring once and setting up the winner — a golden own goal from Delfi Geli in extra time — as the Anfield outfit sealed a 5-4 win over Spanish side Alaves.
Gerrard also scored in that thrilling match in Dortmund. But, in terms of jaw-dropping European finals, his name would instead become associated with the Miracle of Istanbul four years later in the Champions League final against AC Milan.
When McAllister returned to Liverpool as a coach in 2015, Gerrard credited the Scot with teaching him during their brief time as team-mates to ‘progress as a footballer on the pitch and how to be humble and a decent person off it... I owe Gary Mac an awful lot’.
For his part, McAllister recalled seeing Gerrard in training for the first time. He said: ‘Wow, what a talent. Gerard Houllier had made it perfectly clear that I was not going to be playing every week.
‘But there was a crop of youngsters (such as Gerrard) that maybe needed to be around somebody who had been there, seen it and done it, and had won things. It reinvigorated me seeing so many talented young players, Steven, of course, included.’
Given the mutual respect between the pair, it seemed natural earlier this month when Gerrard was named the new manager of Rangers and confirmed McAllister as his right-hand man.
From winning three cups together in Liverpool shirts, the duo now find themselves tasked with stopping rampant double Treble-winning Celtic when Gerrard officially takes up his Ibrox post this Friday.
For Alex Miller, who was on the Liverpool backroom staff from 1999 to 2008, that first season they shared together was a meeting of two unlikely kindred spirits.
‘Gary McAllister came to Liverpool right at the end of his career while Steven Gerrard was a young player but they soon became friends,’ recalled Miller.
‘I think I am right in saying they both have the same agent. But you could say they are kindred spirits because, despite the age gap, they were both exceptional professionals.
‘I knew that for myself having had Gary McAllister in the Scotland set-up for seven years previously and I had also worked with him before at Coventry City.
‘When Gary joined Liverpool, it was not about money. He just wanted to achieve. He wanted to be the best he could be and he helped Liverpool win three cups that season.
‘Likewise, Steven Gerrard is a guy who always wants to achieve the very best he can. He played that way his whole career.
‘I don’t know both men as coaches, only as players. But they both understand tactics, having played their careers at the very highest level and I hope they do well together at Rangers.’
When Miller was first hired by Liverpool, Houllier tasked him with looking around the training base at Melwood and reporting back.
He told the Frenchman that young Gerrard, who was only just breaking into the first team, was a future England captain.
The midfielder would win 114 England caps and only four men — Bobby Moore, Billy Wright, Bryan Robson and David Beckham — have skippered the Three Lions more than Gerrard’s 38 captaincies.
Former Morton, St Mirren, Hibs and Aberdeen boss Miller believes that, in management, Gerrard will settle for nothing less than the 100 per cent he used to give in training and in matches.
But he does not expect the 38-year-old to employ hairdryer scare tactics to fire up the players working under him at Ibrox.
‘Steven will demand high standards but he will be very fair,’ said Miller. ‘He’s never been a shouter. He is quiet around the dressing room and he speaks to people individually to motivate them that way.
‘He showed on the pitch how a professional footballer should go about his duties and he will get a lot of respect from that. And the players will want to play for him because he’s a good leader.
‘He also has the benefit of playing under a lot of very good managers. Steven has worked with Roy Evans, Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez, Roy Hodgson and Brendan Rodgers at club level and Sven Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren, Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson again at international level. Steven will have learned from every one of them.’
If Gerrard and McAllister are looking for advice on the challenge that awaits them at Rangers, they could do worse than get in touch with Miller. The 68-year-old had 17 years as a player at Ibrox under five of the first eight managers in the club’s history — Scot Symon, Davie White, Willie Waddell, Jock Wallace and John Greig.
‘If they ask me for advice, I will speak to them but Steven and Gary are their own men and they are both very experienced international players,’ said Miller.
‘What I will say is for Steven’s first job it’s one hell of a job! It’s going to be a hard gig at Rangers because Brendan Rodgers has done a fantastic job at Celtic.
‘You can’t take anything away from what he has achieved with a lot of players who were there under Ronny Deila.
‘But Rangers is a brilliant club with great support and a fantastic stadium and rich in tradition. And if you get it right at Ibrox, you will be treated like a messiah.’
“Both want to achieve the very best they can”