Gerrard can joust with giants by staying put
Read Gary Keown
WINNING the Old Firm derby was always going to bring the hoary old subject of Steven Gerrard’s suitability as a future Liverpool manager back onto the agenda. Wrap up the SPFL Premiership and it is similarly inevitable that the summer will bring fevered speculation over all manner of other clubs looking to procure his services in the meantime. The jungle drums are already beating.
However, the reality, providing the season continues to negotiate a course around Covid-19 and Rangers enter next term’s Champions League qualifiers as title-winners, is that Gerrard has no need to go anywhere.
No one likely to come knocking on the 40-year-old’s door is going to be able to offer him what season 2021-22 at Ibrox will.
Although Celtic have somehow managed to foul it up five years out of seven, the Champions Route in those qualifiers gives him a more than manageable path into the group stage of European football’s top competition against lesser-ranked sides.
And Gerrard, who describes big challenges as his meat and drink, would surely relish the prospect of leading this side he has built ever so gradually — and not without setbacks — into such exotic waters.
To test how far above their weight they can punch after three years of progress at a lower level of UEFA competition. To measure himself, to see what he might prove capable of, as a coach against the elite.
Even in those days last season when it looked like Gerrard’s time in Glasgow might be hitting the buffers as a result of an inability to string results together domestically, his Rangers team always looked set up to succeed in Europe.
Between the crushing lows of a draw at St Johnstone and a Scottish Cup loss at Tynecastle, they travelled to Portugal in the Europa League knockouts to face a Braga side that had outplayed them while losing in Glasgow and earned a deserved win.
The problem was that they didn’t seem able to handle the switch in styles between Europa League on a Thursday and the blood and thunder of Scottish games at the weekend.
With that having been sorted out during the extended break offered by lockdown — and the Betfred Cup loss to St Mirren the only real failure of this campaign — it is possible to reflect on the events of that period in a different light.
Gerrard’s first-team coach — and tactical specialist — Michael Beale copped understandable criticism for stating that the side was better suited to the technical aspects of the Europa League than the physicality of home.
He has long called for stricter refereeing here, less tolerance of tackles deemed unacceptable at Champions League level. Yet, there was never any discernible move, in figuring out a solution, towards switching focus and concentrating purely on battles at home rather than adventures abroad.
This has been a project with an eye on Europe from the very beginning. So why would Gerrard or Beale — two guys who seem eager to drink in new experiences — want to go back to a mid-ranking English Premier League outfit, let’s say, at this exciting juncture?
Sure, there would be higher wages and budgets. As indicated by Frank Lampard landing the Chelsea job after failure at Derby, your name alone is still enough to open doors in a billion-dollar business that operates in illogical ways.
Gerrard, though, has never suggested finance is a factor in his decision-making. From the Liverpool youth set-up to now, his is a progression where he has tried to take ego — and reputation — out of the equation in favour of learning.
He is open about his mistakes — of which there have been many — and how far he still has to travel. With that in mind, adding first-hand Champions League knowledge to his armoury is surely worth far more in the long-term than a bigger paypacket right now.
Gerrard has shown he can get his Rangers teams to perform above expectations against richer continental opposition. They have beaten Galatasaray and Porto and drawn home and away with Benfica. They must surely feel they have it within them to do that again when facing clubs from even further up the pecking order.
What’s more, the Champions League itself is basically a free hit. The main task is merely to get there and secure the £30million-plus. After that, it is pretty much no-lose. Get spanked by six and seven against the real big boys and people are unlikely to hold your feet to the fire. Ask Brendan Rodgers when putting his mishaps as Celtic boss against PSG and Barcelona into context.
Actually manage to make a fist of it and achieve something — even a third-placed spot and a parachute into the Europa League — and those in bigger leagues and at bigger clubs will really start to take notice.
Gerrard still has a legacy to build at Rangers and he isn’t ready for a club the size of Liverpool. In any case, there is no sign of Jurgen Klopp stepping aside.
There also seems little point in the Rangers manager going anywhere outside England’s Big Six when his current club can offer so much to aid his progression in the immediate term. He is loved where he is and possesses the added currency of momentum.
Having beaten Celtic and teed up an unlikely title triumph, Gerrard stated that the season starts now. You might also say the same for his managerial career.
After all the trials and tribulations of the past two-and-a-half years, a coveted entry-point into the big league awaits. And that is not something to give up easily.