CUT IT OUT

Gerrard calls on the culprits who are hurting Rangers with their sectarian singing to ‘see sense’ as he pleads with fans to support club properly

ALIFETIME spent at the very top of European football has granted Steven Gerrard a degree of expertise on any number of sporting subjects.

But this? This is different. And it’s fair to say that some Rangers fans’ continued addiction to sectarian singing puts the rookie head coach on more uncertain ground.

Make no mistake, he’s game enough to have a go at addressing the issue.

And, rather sadly given his relatively short time in Glasgow to date, this isn’t the first time he has had to tackle the problem.

But the England and Liverpool great, at ease discussing everything from the pressure of playing for a big club to the technical niceties of European football, can’t be expected to bring the same sure-footed certainty to a most unwelcome discussion.

Even his background on Merseyside, hardly dissimilar to the west of Scotland in cultural terms, doesn’t help very much.

‘I was obviously aware of the

rivalry and the religion and the politics around it, that stuff,’ said Gerrard, when asked yesterday if growing up in Liverpool had given him at least an inkling of what to expect here.

‘But I didn’t realise how strong it was. I don’t think you do until you actually come here and are involved in it.

‘There have been numerous situations and questions I’ve had to face, in press conferences, about different types of fan behaviour. I don’t know what to say.

‘You hope that people see sense and realise that it’s not helping the team.

‘And, if they’re real fans and real supporters, which I’m sure they say they are, they need to realise pretty quickly that it will be the team and the club — their own club — that suffers. No one else.

‘So they’re gaining nothing from this type of behaviour.’

The real concern is that, for some, this ‘behaviour’ matters more than the football.

So wrapped up are they in some twisted idea of ‘identity’ that everything could fall around their ears, including the club they profess to love, before they even considered curbing their enthusiastic brand of bigotry.

If that seems baffling even to people who were actually raised in this environment, Gerrard can’t be expected to understand it.

‘I’m sure that is the same for every club,’ he said, rather uncertainly, when asked if he was concerned that a hard core will never change.

‘Everyone has a paranoia that a minority could let the club down. That is not just in this country.’

Gerrard was given no prior inkling of the punishment handed down to Rangers yesterday — the closure of a 3,000-seat section of Ibrox for Thursday night’s clash with Legia Warsaw — insisting it had come as ‘a shock’ to him.

As a football man, he’s clearly frustrated — borderline infuriated — by anything that reduces his team’s chances in the second leg of their all-important Europa League play-off.

In the aftermath of Thursday night’s 0-0 draw in Poland, he had made great play of how Ibrox would be bouncing for the return tie. Now, there will be a little less bounce.

If the gaffer in him is annoyed by that, Gerrard is equally irked — as a human being — that he has to deal with this nonsense at all.

Recalling how he had helped front a well-intentioned Rangers campaign to tackle just the sort of prejudice now highlighted by UEFA, he said: ‘We’ve been here before, when I’ve been asked questions about fan behaviour.

‘I sat in a press conference two weeks ago, all about what the club were doing to address behaviour on the terraces.

‘Everyone is working as hard as they can to promote that. Unfortunately, a minority is letting that down.

‘It was the Everyone Anyone campaign — and I think it was a fantastic thing for the club to do.

‘A lot of hard work has gone into that campaign.

‘All the players back it and I back it. To have something like this so close to the launch of that campaign is disappointing.’

The really odd thing about some fans’ continued fascination with causing offence, of course, is that Rangers most definitely don’t need any of this nonsense.

Sticking to the ‘official’ song book wouldn’t make Ibrox any less intimidating on a big European night, would it?

‘This club is world-renowned for the fanbase, for the songs and the support the fans give the team,’ said Gerrard.

‘That is without any of that stuff. The atmosphere at Ibrox can be brilliant. There is no better place.

‘If you are a player or manager, when it is rocking and bouncing then few places can match that.

‘It is unreal when it is bouncing and jumping — and that’s the type of support we want.

‘In tough games, it takes a lot out of you mentally and physically. So to have 50,000 behind you and egging you on — there is no better feeling.

‘Unfortunately, a big chunk of that is going to be gone and that is frustrating for us all.

‘We need every little bit of help we can get. And 3,000 people can make an awful lot of noise.

‘When Ibrox is full and is rocking, it’s a difficult place for a team to come and get the right result.

‘You keep taking chunks of that away, it gives the opposition an advantage.

‘So we’re gaining nothing from these chants and this behaviour.

‘Again, I ask and plead for the fans to behave properly when they come and support the team.

‘I should be answering questions about Ryan Jack’s performance last night — and about how strong and brave my team were in one of the most hostile environments you can be involved in.

‘I should be talking about our positive start to the season.

‘Unfortunately, I’m talking about statements we’re having to make every few months about fan behaviour.’

Inevitably, some will criticise Gerrard for not going far enough in his condemnation of the offences that have landed his club in trouble.

Others on the lunatic fringe will bemoan the sight of a Rangers manager bending the knee to the politically motivated. Or the politically correct.

Or is it health and safety? It all becomes a blur, to be honest.

The hope is that, for the vast majority, the sanctions and the outcry will mark a turning point of sorts.

Yet, as Gerrard himself admitted yesterday: ‘I hoped it was the turning point last time I addressed these questions.’

When it comes to rationalising with the irrational, the man who once conquered all of Europe is learning to temper his expectations. Call it a life lesson unique to this particular footballing environment.