Gerrard hinted at becoming a manager but then he chose to jump into the cauldron with both feet
CAPTAIN fantastic? Undoubtedly. Clearly a manager in the making? Rather less so. Charlie Adam spent a year in the Liverpool dressing room with Steven Gerrard and always saw his skipper as a quiet, deep thinker, happy to let his lieutenants do the rabble-rousing and probably more suited to a future career in the media rather than the dugout.
Five months into Gerrard’s first managerial job at Rangers, though, and one thing is clear to him. The singular determination that took the 114 times-capped England star to the top of the European game on the field is as sharp as ever and keeping him strong and focused when others would have disintegrated under the pressure.
Although still feted by the Light Blue legions, Gerrard has already had his fair share of blows to handle in Scotland. Ten points dropped away from home in the league have yet to be atoned for. The nature of defeat in the first Old Firm game of the season was deeply disappointing. A Betfred Cup semi-final loss to Aberdeen brought a withering assessment from the manager himself.
Even a surprising and exhilarating Europa League campaign still hangs in the balance after a well-earned lead was thrown away with some criminal defending in the recent 4-3 loss to Spartak in Moscow.
Gerrard is, without doubt, on a steep learning curve as a coach, but Adam takes great encouragement from the fact he is still there, standing tall, rolling with the punches and ready for more.
He saw how a more experienced campaigner in Pedro Caixinha buckled under the weight of expectation at Ibrox last season and knows from his own spell as a player at Rangers that not everyone can cope with the suffocating atmosphere that exists in Glasgow.
‘Steven has the aura, presence and stature to take it,’ said the Stoke midfielder. ‘A lot of people might have crumbled by now.
‘You saw it with Pedro Caixinha. He struggled. The pressure got to him. A lot of other managers have had it and struggled with the pressure. Steven will relish the challenge because he has always done that as a player.
‘He will expect people to be doubting him and will want to prove them wrong.
‘Steven was a quiet captain. He allowed Jamie Carragher to do a lot of the talking and was more of a thinker.
‘He was more of a deep-thought person. Did I see him being a manager?
‘You had glimpses of it, but I thought more of a media sort of thing would have suited more.
‘He had the opportunity to go to the Under-18s and take that, though, and did well there. Listen, everyone has to start somewhere and he has got one of the biggest jobs. The problem is that you get criticised every time you make a mistake. That’s the way it goes.
‘He wanted to jump in with both feet and be in the cauldron. He will be judged at the end of the season like any other manager would be.’ During his previous career as an analyst at BT Sport, Gerrard detailed, in a memorable interview, the sheer infatuation with making it big that drove him as a player.
‘I was obsessed,’ said Gerrard. ‘Obsessed with being the best player in training every single day, and if I wasn’t, I’d go home and think about it and try and do it again the next day.
‘You have to be obsessed. When you get that sniff and that little bit of hope, you’ve got to be obsessed to move them (team-mates) out of the way.’
Adam assures Rangers fans that those same levels of preoccupation, of fixation on a goal, will be driving Gerrard as he endeavours to build the club he wants at Rangers and the career he desires as a boss. The Scouser knows no other way.
‘You need to be single-minded. Not just at Rangers,’ said Adam, who came through the ranks at Ibrox before leaving for Blackpool in 2009.
‘He had that as a player and that is why he was one of the best players in the world.
‘You need that drive and determination to be the best you can. He just wanted to knock everyone out of the way and he will be the same as a manager.
‘He will want to win no matter what. He will want to knock people out of the way.
‘He will be putting all his time and effort into that club because you simply won’t get success if you don’t put the time and effort in.
‘He has had a couple of early bumps and bruises with the semi-final loss to Aberdeen and a couple of bad results, as well as the European game in Moscow the other week.
‘It is a learning curve. He is one of the great players to play for England and Liverpool, though, and the lads managed by him should be sitting up and listening to what he is saying.
‘He definitely has a thick enough skin for it and he needs that. He always had it as a player. He has class as well. When he talks, people listen and people respect him.
‘He is a young coach still learning the game and he will make mistakes.
‘It is how he adapts during games and how he analyses it after the games. It is also about having the right people behind you.’
Adam sees clear steps forward being taken at Rangers. Whether they will be enough to satisfy demands remains to be seen.
‘They are progressing. They are closing the gap in the league a little bit,’ he said. ‘It is going to be tough. It is the first season, but I think the manager seems to be happy in certain aspects.
‘You are only seven or eight months into a new regime. It can be judged at the end of the season.’
Adam was linked with a potential return to Rangers in some quarters over the summer and, having made only five appearances for Stoke this season, admits he would be open to the idea of a loan move to Scotland in January.
‘A loan is something I would look at,’ he said. ‘I will discuss it when it is closer to the time, but I want to play and Scotland is, hopefully, an option.’