‘Only a matter of time before Gerrard replaces Klopp’
HIS second season at Rangers may have once again, albeit in unusual circumstances, ended trophyless and the pressure on him to deliver silverware might be steadily mounting.
But Steven Gerrard remains firmly on course to replace Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager whenever the German departs Anfield according to one of his former team-mates.
Jamie Redknapp was an established first-team player at the Merseyside giants as well as being a fixture in his national team when Gerrard first broke through.
The midfielder was instantly impressed with the athleticism, ability and ambition of the teenager who would go on to lead his boyhood heroes to Champions League success and captain his country.
Now a Sky Sports pundit, Redknapp has followed Gerrard’s coaching career closely in the last couple of years.
He feels his compatriot, who has taken Rangers into the Europa League group stages twice and steered them through to the last 16 of that competition last term, has done well even though his charges have not yet lifted a trophy.
And Redknapp is convinced the Reds great can, as has been widely mooted since he moved to Glasgow in 2018, take over from Klopp in future if he continues his progress and avoids any major slip-ups going forward.
Speaking to Kris Boyd and Robert Snodgrass on the former Scotland duo’s new The Lockdown Tactics podcast, he said: “I wasn’t sure if Stevie would go into management.
“It’s a bit like Frank Lampard. They’ve both had great careers, won everything, and I could see them just doing punditry, take the easy option. But they haven’t, they’ve gone in at the sharp end.
“Stevie is in Scotland and doing well. Yet, it’s not easy because Celtic are so strong. But Stevie has got it, you can see that. I think a few years at Rangers, and as long as he doesn’t make too many mistakes, it’s only a question of time before he manages Liverpool when Jurgen Klopp decides to go.”
Redknapp’s first impressions about Gerrard the player certainly proved correct – he was blown away when he first set eyes on him in a training session at Melwood and immediately tipped him to reach the very top of the game.
“I remember one day Gerard Houllier (the then Liverpool manager) brought over two players,” he said. “One was Stephen Wright, who went on to have a good career, played for Sunderland. The other was Stevie, who’d have been 16 or 17 at that time.
“Gerard said he [Wright] was the one. Both of them joined in. Stephen Wright played right-back. Stevie played in the same midfield as me and I think we were up against Paul Ince and Patrick Berger.
“I’ve got the ball, passed to Stevie, hoping he would give me it back and I could ping it out to the left winger, or something. But he took the ball in and on the half-turn he just hit this pass, straight through the air and into someone’s feet. And I thought: ‘Wow, this kid can play’. Just two minutes later he’s smashed into Paul Ince, and then he is driving past people.
“Gerard Houllier came up to me at the end and asked what I thought of the right-back? I said: ‘Right-back? What about the kid in midfield? He’s unbelievable. He’s different class, the best I’ve seen in years. He is a winner’. I said:
‘If you can’t see that then you don’t know football’.”
“You know what else set him apart? His pace. He was lightning quick. It was unbelievable. He was not far off Michael Owen pace. When the pair them used to race he wasn’t far off. That’s what set him apart, for me. It wasn’t just his bravery or his shooting power. He never really got the credit for just how quick he was.”
Redknapp added: “I liked Stevie as a kid, he had a bit about him. He used to clean my boots. I remember one day, near Christmas, I said to him that I’d get him some stuff for him and his brother. I said what size of boot he was and he said ‘seven, eight nine or ten!’ I loved that. He was great fun.
“Listen, he has a serious side, and he is a serious football man, but he also has a great sense of humour. We had some great times.
“I only tried to help because he was a good lad. It’s like anything else, I’ll only help if he’s a good lad. If he was someone who just had talent but had absolutely no chance then I wouldn’t waste my time. He was a good lad and wanted to learn.
“Gary McAllister was also a massive influence on him at Liverpool. Glaswegians and Scousers are similar in terms of they want to win so badly.”
VYKINTAS SLIVKA is set to join Hibs’ four loan players in leaving the club this summer.
The Lithuania internationalist is out of contract in the coming days and will exit after three seasons at Easter Road.
Whilst the former
Juventus midfielder is departing, the futures of versatile veteran Steven Whittaker and goalkeeper Adam Bogdan remain uncertain as they also approach the end of their deals in the capital.
For the meantime, the Leith club have confirmed the departures of all four loan players whose deals have come to an end with the conclusion of the curtailed campaign.
Rangers midfielder Greg Docherty, Reading striker Marc McNulty, Peterborough full-back Jason Naismith and Genoa playmaker Stephane Omeonga have all now returned to their parent clubs, with striker Florian Kamberi due back at Hibs following his controversial loan spell at Ibrox.
However, manager Jack Ross has already expressed a desire to re-sign the departed quartet if they are made available this summer.
Speaking earlier this month, he said: “We will see what their parent clubs say about them as we move forward and if they are available.
“Then we have to have a conversation with them as well because, the way I see it, they have all had a positive impact and I’ve enjoyed working with them, so it would be remiss of us to just ignore them and go and recruit someone else.”