Stopping Celtic can be a huge selling point, insists Gerrard
‘IF YOU ARE A PLAYER LOOKING IN NOW, YOU ARE PROBABLY THINKING: “OH, SOMETHING IS BREWING THERE, CAN I BE THAT GUY WHO GOES IN AND MAKES THE DIFFERENCE?”’
THE budget still seems up for debate. The sales pitch most definitely isn’t. When it comes to Steven Gerrard recruiting the quality required to deliver the trophies chairman Dave King believes to be in ‘tangible reach’, the carrot the Ibrox manager will dangle in front of his signing targets this summer is clear: You can write your name in history here.
Break Celtic’s stranglehold on domestic domination — and, most crucially, stop them from winning the mythical 10-in-a-Row — and every player in that team will take his place beside some of the greatest names in Rangers legend from the most decorated periods in the club’s history.
That’s clearly how Gerrard views it and his opinion is backed up, to a degree, by the way the Wim Janseninspired Celtic side, which denied Walter Smith’s all-conquering Rangers team a 10th successive championship in 1998, continues to be lauded across the city.
Convinced he has laid solid foundations despite failing to win silverware in his debut season as a manager, the ex-Liverpool captain feels the promise of being part of something that will forever shape one of world football’s best-known rivalries and create real, personal legacies can help him pull a rabbit or two out of the hat in the market.
‘We feel we are an attractive place for exciting players to come and help us. The challenge for me is to get them over the line,’ he said. ‘If you are a player looking in now, you are probably thinking: “Oh, there is something brewing there. Can I be that player to go and make the difference?”.
‘People talk about the nine-in-arow era and Celtic’s dominance lately. Can you imagine being part of a Rangers group that is the next successful group? Because if you get one, I think it will be just as important as for the people who had to do it for nine.’
There is evidence to suggest that applies to those at Celtic who helped Dutch coach Jansen, who left after that one remarkable season in 1997-98, halt Rangers’ charge to 10-in-a-Row.
Indeed, a play called ‘Bend It Like Brattbakk’ — named after Norwegian striker Harald and based on the campaign
which saw him clinch the championship with a last-day goal against St Johnstone — only just finished its latest run in a theatre in the west end of Glasgow a matter of weeks ago. Gerrard knows where Brattbakk and his team-mates feature in Celtic’s story, thanks to their feats, and understands that same love and respect would be extended to his reign should he end a turbulent and painful period for the blue half of Glasgow with a title. ‘That’s the way it is up here,’ he said. ‘The players here are aware of that. It’s a tough challenge as Celtic are dominating. They’re in a position where they can go and spend £9million on a player and we’ll keep an eye on movements across the road, in terms of how they strengthen in the summer.
‘But what’s important is that we’re in a position to challenge that. The reality is, we need to add quality for that to happen. It’s hard to find players with that mentality because they cost a lot of cash, so we have to weave some magic in the market.
‘Not everyone with that quality costs money. There are people running down contracts, free transfers, players who are blocked at big clubs, like we’ve seen with Ryan Kent. There are exciting players out there but we must convince them this is the place for them to come and have a good time.
‘There’s going and spending millions and millions of pounds. There’s interesting loans and frees out there that can help you. There are different ways to go about it, but until we sit down with the board and find out the resources available, it is difficult to say how many or who.
‘It is exciting, though, the thought of trying to create something capable of challenging for the big prizes.’
With Kilmarnock’s Jordan Jones secured for next season and Hearts defender John Souttar on the radar, along with the likes of Motherwell’s Jake Hastie, Gerrard is already well down the line of sourcing talent.
He points out, however, that USA internationalist Matt Polster, who featured in the dying stages of the win over Hearts yesterday, remains a player who was always pencilled in to hit his stride next term rather than this.
‘Matt was brought in for next season,’ said Gerrard. ‘I knew he would take longer than the local lads to settle. Here, it is more intense and there is more pressure, even in training. It is not like the MLS.
‘In the first few months, he was finding it hard. We saw that, so it wouldn’t have been right to put him in as the first three or four games are the ones fans never forget.
‘In the last week to 10 days, it is the best he has looked. He was really strong in the Celtic reserve game last week. I am looking forward to launching him.’