KRIS COMMONS ON THE CRITICAL ISSUES THAT WILL DEFINE A TITANIC TUSSLE
Title will cement Gerrard’s place in Ibrox folklore ... fail and he is nothing more than a nearly man at Rangers
EIGHT years have now passed since Rangers last won a major trophy. For a club of their stature, there’s no way to sugarcoat that. It’s an embarrassing record.
Yeah, fair enough, they weren’t always in the top flight during that period and weren’t able to compete for the Premiership title.
But what about their record in the cups? Last season alone, they bottled it twice to Aberdeen and failed to even reach a final let alone win anything.
This is the narrative that Steven Gerrard must change over the course of the new season. He
has to make a serious addition to the trophy cabinet.
Failure to do so, especially given the finance that has been made available to him, would be a monumental failure. It’s unthinkable. There’s a lot of talk about stopping Celtic’s bid for Nine-in-a-row. Whether it’s the league title or not, it’s stopping a ninth season without a trophy that should be Gerrard’s main priority.
Whenever you hear conversations about the greatest players never to win the English Premier League, Gerrard’s name invariably appears at the top of the list.
During his career as a player, Liverpool finished runners-up on three occasions. For all his worldclass ability, Gerrard became football’s answer to Tim Henman or Colin Montgomerie.
He can’t afford to be a nearly man at Ibrox. Talk of progress won’t wash any more. He’s been in the building for 12 months and the fans will demand something tangible to celebrate.
When Rangers romped to a 5-1 victory at Kilmarnock to clinch the title on the final day of the season in 2011, the supporters could never have envisaged what would follow.
In the intervening period, they’ve had to watch as Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, Ross County, Inverness Caley Thistle, St Johnstone, Kilmarnock and St Mirren have all landed major silverware.
Gerrard has been provided with the financial clout to assemble the strongest Rangers team since Walter Smith’s Double winners in 2011. He knows the buck will stop with him.
He’s under major pressure to deliver a trophy, while, for Neil Lennon, the pressure is all about being the man to deliver Nine-in-a-row.
There are still some Celtic fans who believe the club should have gone for a more exotic name as their new manager and Lennon is under more pressure now than he was in his first stint at the club.
But he earned his chance to take the job by the way in which he helped stabilise the side at the end of last season and guided them to another Treble.
In the grand scheme of things, the Treble doesn’t matter for Celtic this season. With the mythical figure of ten now so tantalisingly close, it’s all about the league title.
From Rangers’ point of view, it’s absolutely imperative that they make a fast start to the season and go into the first Old Firm clash on September 1 with a maximum haul of nine points.
They have games against Hibs and St Mirren. But first up is a trip to Kilmarnock on Sunday in the curtain-raiser, which should tell us everything about where they’re at.
Last season, they only took two points from a possible 12 against Killie — and lost on both of their visits to Rugby Park in the league.
They can’t afford to cough up cheap points in the way they did last year. Draws against the likes of your Dundees, Motherwells and St Johnstones just won’t cut it.
Much of their hopes will rest on the shoulders of Alfredo Morelos. Not just his ability to score goals, but his ability to stay on the pitch for 90 minutes. It’s been fairly quiet around the Colombian on the transfer front. Gerrard has stated there will be a cut-off point for any potential suitors if they want to buy him.
But there could be some action there. If a club comes in and puts £10million on the table, timing won’t matter a jot. Rangers just can’t afford to knock back that kind of money.
Given his comments at the weekend, Gerrard is obviously frustrated at being continually asked about Morelos.
It doesn’t help, though, when the player himself has spoken openly about wanting to play for a top European club in the past.
Gerrard will just want the window to shut and for Morelos to commit himself for at least one more year on a contract which actually runs until 2023.
With the Scottish transfer window closing on September 2, which is more than three weeks later than the English window on August 8, there’s still plenty of business to be done for our clubs.
There’s every chance Arsenal could return with an improved bid for Kieran Tierney. They have dragged their heels about it and are clearly trying to get him on the cheap.
Manchester United paid Crystal Palace £50m for Aaron WanBissaka — a half-decent full-back who has had one good season.
I understand there’s a premium on English players because clubs need to fill a certain quota in their squad, but Tierney is twice the player Wan-Bissaka is.
He’s a proven winner, a born leader, has already captained his country, a future Celtic captain if he sticks around long enough, and has shown his pedigree at Champions League level.
Given the precedent set by the WanBissaka deal, Celtic have every right to hold firm and look to get every penny they possibly can for their prized asset. All in all, this is shaping up to be the most exciting title race we’ve seen in many a year. I expect Rangers will get closer, but I still fancy Celtic will just have too much in their locker.
If that doesn’t happen, though, and Gerrard and his players manage to dethrone their great rivals, they will be assured of legendary status in Ibrox folklore.