I do wish now I could have stayed longer at Liverpool. There’s a wee tad of regret I didn’t play under Jurgen
EXCLUSIVE Steven Gerrard on leaving the past behind, proving himself in Scotland and whether he will get the Anf ield job
IT is the morning after Rangers’ 1-0 midweek victory over Hibs and Steven Gerrard is sitting in the manager’s office at the club’s training centre north of Glasgow. Victory at Easter Road meant Rangers maintained a 23-point lead over Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership. Celtic’s dream of 10 titles in a row is in ruins. Gerrard is on the brink of a great triumph.
Even while Celtic’s season crumbled around them and Rangers conducted a near-flawless campaign which has yet to see them lose a game in either the League or Europa League, Gerrard has steadfastly refused to acknowledge he is about to achieve what he came to Ibrox to do back in the summer of 2018.
Many said it was a risk. Many said Gerrard was brave. Some said it would be a graveyard for his ambitions and that the managerial career of one of England’s greatest players would end before it had begun.
Rangers was less a football club at that time, more a black hole. Gerrard has transformed it and has proved himself as a coach as well as a leader who can inspire those around him.
So, surely, it is time. Admit it. The title race is over. It’s won. There is to be no catching Rangers. Their first title since 2011 is a formality. It’s time to celebrate title number 55, right?
Gerrard isn’t buying it. So he really hasn’t let himself believe yet that he’s won it? Seriously? There is not even a pause at the other end of the phone line. Not a laugh.
Or a chuckle. ‘No,’ he says.
NOT until it’s mathematically certain, he says. Too many ghosts haunt his memories for him to relax now. His was a brilliant playing career but pitted with setbacks and disappointments, plenty of lows to go with the highs. Rangers started well last season then fell away. When he was a Liverpool player, Manchester United were his Celtic and even though others caught them, Gerrard’s Liverpool never took the final step.
‘I have too much experience as a player, and in my short time as a coach, to know that there are still a lot of points to play for,’ he says. ‘Football can change at any given moment, we are living during a pandemic and you have got to be respectful to your competition.
‘I am happy with the job we’ve done so far. I don’t want anyone to think I am stupid and that I don’t realise where we are, but I have too much experience in the game to get ahead of myself or let this team get ahead of itself. We are new in terms of the group, we are still progressing and trying to get to where we want to get to. In terms of the title, you are not there until you are there.’
Rangers had to grind out their win at Easter Road, Gerrard’s 99th victory as their boss, but played well enough to give insight into the style and the 4-3-3 formation that Gerrard and his assistants, Gary
McAllister and the highly-rated Michael Beale, have drilled into the team.
In the clever, elusive Finland midfielder Glen Kamara, they had the best player on the pitch. Ryan Kent is a fine winger. Ryan Jack is an authoritative, assured playmaker. James Tavernier, the skipper, is a superb, attacking right back.
Rangers’ winner, scored by maverick forward Alfredo Morelos, was a lovely example of one-touch football and intelligent movement.
The night said plenty about Gerrard the leader, too. He cajoled, encouraged and applauded from the touchline but there were several occasions where he turned away and kicked out at an imaginary object when a pass went astray, a move broke down or a ball was played backwards when he thought it should have been moved swiftly forwards.
He sticks up for his team, as well. He will not accept slights or poor treatment. He was annoyed that his players had to change in a makeshift area behind one of the goals at the stadium on cold concrete floors.
Nor has he lost his interest in the English game. As he was walking between post-match media interviews at Easter Road, a journalist told him that Manchester United were losing to Sheffield United at Old Trafford and his eyes lit up. The next day, he said he had watched the highlights when he got back to his apartment that night.
‘United still seem a work in progress,’ he says. ‘You can see they have made massive strides. Bruno Fernandes has given everyone a massive boost. He has put confidence around the team, a bit similar to the way (Virgil) Van Dijk did at Liverpool. You still think they could be a couple of pieces short but they are definitely much further along than a couple of years back.’
Gerrard’s success at Rangers, the way he has worked with the club’s respected sporting director, Ross Wilson, the way he has drawn the disparate elements of one of Scotland’s great sporting institutions together, turning the club back into a cohesive entity after so much chaos, has won plenty of plaudits.
He sees the big picture. He makes players want to follow him.
As they have run away with the league, it has inevitably led to speculation about him being approached to take over at a Premier League club. The idea that he is destined to succeed Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool boss when both their contracts run out in 2024 is a persistent narrative.
His friend and former Liverpool team-mate, Jamie Carragher, suggested a couple of weeks ago that now would be too early for Gerrard, 40, to take over in the same way he felt Frank Lampard had been pitched into the Chelsea job before he had enough experience in management.
Gerrard did not disagree but that was mainly because he felt the discussion was irrelevant. There are times when a manager says he is not interested in moving on and you suspect they are being economical with the truth, that they are not saying what they would like to say.
It feels different with Gerrard. He hates being apart from his wife, Alex, and their four children, who still live on Merseyside, but his words and his manner suggest he is not impatient to leave Rangers and his work there is far from done.
‘I always respect Jamie’s opinion,’ says Gerrard. ‘He was a student of the game when he played and he has done ever so well as a pundit. There are tons of opinions out there, some right, some wrong, some of them nearly right, and I understand where Jamie is coming from. But you can’t predict the future.
‘You’ve just got to go along and think about the next day. I am really happy where I am. I’m not looking over the fence, I’m not trying to get down south, I’m here under a strong contract with good support from the board. I’ve got dreams of one day managing teams down south but I am in no rush, I haven’t got a date or a time so I haven’t really thought too much about what Jamie said.
‘I’m focused on trying to stay in the now with Rangers. I get asked that question a lot about Liverpool and I don’t really want to get involved with it because it’s not something to be concerned with.
‘They have a fantastic, worldclass manager, they are on a real wave of success and as a fan that is an unbelievable place to be in. I am really proud of the club and I’m loving seeing Liverpool where they are right now.’
Gerrard is still hungry to learn. He is frustrated that travel restrictions have stopped him going to meet other managers from whom he would like to seek advice.
He has heard the story about Pep Guardiola travelling to Argentina to talk long into the night with Marcelo Bielsa and he says the list of managers he would travel to meet is ‘too long to put in your newspaper’. He has had conversations with Sir Alex Ferguson, he says. He would like to talk to Arsene Wenger. Bielsa fascinates him.
So where does he see his style
fitting into the coaches’ firmament? Is he a disciple of Bielsaball or Gegenpressing, Parking the Bus or Tiki-taka?
‘I don’t think you can nail yourself to one philosophy and say “This is the way I want to be” or “This is what I want people to say about my teams from now to the end of my journey in coaching”,’ he says. ‘I don’t know what roles I’m going to take during that journey.
‘I am at a club that demands success and entertaining football so you have to adapt and I’ve had to bring a philosophy here that I think will work for the Rangers supporters and will bring success. That means trying to be a really tough team to play against, an aggressive team in the right way, but also play football at the right times in the right areas of the pitch.
‘But I might take over a role where maybe you are not one of the favourites in the league and you have to adapt. I don’t want to nail myself to one sentence that sums up my philosophy.
‘When you talk about Sarri-ball, Bielsaball and Gegenpressing, those are media narratives about their identity. If I end up with an identity like that further on in my career then great, but for me it’s about being able to adapt your philosophy for what’s in front of you.’
He has admitted before that he found it hard to say goodbye to his persona as captain of Liverpool, the club he still adores. In fact, he admits that he should have stayed there longer.
‘Looking back now, I wish I’d have signed the final one-year contract I was offered by Liverpool because I would have had the opportunity to maybe have a small period of playing under Jurgen Klopp,’ he says.
‘There is a wee tad of regret — and I say wee because I’m up in Scotland. I had a fantastic journey at Liverpool and the highs that club took me to are memories I cherish. I think about them every day.
‘At the same time, I had some brutal lows that I’ve tried to move on from. But I don’t want to always talk about highs and lows. I look back on that journey with fondness because I lived my dream. I played for my local team and I achieved things I never dreamt of.
‘I always knew I wanted this buzz and intensity again in my life. I’m enjoying this role. I am proud to be the manager. I am thankful for the opportunity and I am enjoying the buzz and the rollercoaster that management brings to you.
‘Nothing will fully replace leading your hometown club out but having the opportunity to be successful as Rangers manager, that’s the dream for me. It is about giving the supporters the real Rangers back.
‘This is a huge institution with passionate people and I can relate to this club. I had preparation for this type of intensity and scrutiny and that’s why I felt I could come and give it a good shot.’
The dream is all about giving supporters here the real Rangers back