Gerrard wants players to follow in his footsteps
Steven Gerrard believes his old heads can help Rangers start winning trophies again.
The Ibrox manager is preparing to offer the experienced trio of Allan Mcgregor, Jermaine Defoe and Steven Davis new contracts.
Gerrard knows how valuable experience can be when it comes to games like today’s Betfred League Cup semi-final against Hearts.
Although the competition is seen as the least prestigious of the domestic trophies, it’s being given top priority by the Light Blues.
Winning the English equivalent was Gerrard’s first success as a senior player and drove him on to have a career littered with silverware.
Men like Mcgregor, Defoe and Davis already know what it takes to land a top honour.
Gerrard said: “There will be news on the horizon about people staying for longer at the club.
“The people I’m talking about are the likes of Jermain Defoe, Allan Mcgregor, Steven Davis – they‘re not on long-term deals but are very much in the plan.
“They’re on top form and players we want around longer after the end of the season. “I don’t look at age. I look at form. “You’re never going to offer them a two or three-year deal. But you don’t want to lose them because they’re so valuable to us.
“They are players who help drive the standards and are helping me on a daily basis.
“Can you imagine how difficult my job would be now if those three were leaving in the summer, or they knocked on my door and said they don’t want to play?
“How do you go and find a world-class goalie, who is going to make big saves in Europe, with the budgets that are available?
“How do you go and find a No. 9, who can score at any given time and has 57 caps?
“And how do you go and find someone who has Steven Davis’s experience, who can run games of football and is a model professional?”
The big challenge for Gerrard is to land at least one trophy this season – anything less would be seen as a failure.
It was once said you win nothing with kids and that’s something the Rangers boss agrees with – in a roundabout way!
He went on: “I don’t want any crazy Alan Hansen quotes coming out here, but balance is important.
“You need energy and youth to get the best out of the older guys in the dressing room, and vice versa.
“These young guys need guidance and to see people that set 100% standards every single day.
“At the moment, I think we have the balance right.
“That’s not to say that we don’t want to add to it or change it by making additions.”
Gerrard won the League Cup with Liverpool in 2001 and that led to them completing a treble that included the FA Cup and UEFA Cup.
He smiles when he recalls lifting that first trophy. He’d love success in the Scottish equivalent to be the start of something big for his players.
“It was the catalyst for going on a successful run,” said the Light Blues boss.
“It was my first taste of a real trophy. I’d won many things coming through the amateurs and stuff like that.
“At the time, you think they’re the best trophies and the best achievements of your life.
But then you get one for real – a major honour at that level of football – and the taste and the feeling afterwards certainly drove me on.
“I’m sure it did that for many other players in the dressing room and for us to have a wonderful season.
“I think the first is always the hardest because of all the pressure and the expectation.
“So I do think that getting to this final is very important.
“If and when we do, then we need to try and go all the way.
“First things first. We need to do everything we can to overturn Hearts.”