Even Steven Gerrard isn’t enough to revive Rangers’ fortunes

Steven Gerrard is in talks to take over Rangers. Will he be enough to rescue what has become one of the most dysfunctional clubs in Europe?

Steven Gerrard has confirmed he’s in talks to take over as Rangers manager, a move aimed at getting the Scottish club back to winning ways. While bringing the former England captain to Ibrox would be a major coup for a club that struggle these days to even compete for the Scottish league title, Gerrard’s presence alone is no panacea.

There are several pros and cons to signing an unknown like Gerrard. Similar experiments like this have succeeded (see: Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid or Gennaro Gattuso at AC Milan), while others have failed. For those, just ask AC Milan and Sevilla, two clubs that both sacked Vincenzo Montella, once a star striker, this season.

Gerrard’s presence alone isn’t going to attract superstars — no club in Scotland could compete with Europe’s big five domestic leagues and the deep-pocketed clubs there — but it may help to siphon talent that would have otherwise signed with rivals Celtic or Aberdeen. Gerrard is also a more intriguing name than some of the others being considered for the job, including Gary McAllister and Neil Warnock.

“You can understand the whole lure of coming to Ibrox for Steven Gerrard, but you can also understand why it has taken so long, from when we are led to believe discussions started a week to 10 days ago,” former Rangers striker Kris Boyd said when asked about the possible move. “He will want something concrete on what he has got going forward, because it is a big, big risk for him as well.”

Gerrard’s star power is overrated. He did nothing in the twilight of his career with the Los Angeles Galaxy, a place where David Beckham excelled a decade ago and Zlatan Ibrahimovic is currently doing so.

Unlike what Brenden Rodgers has been able to do on the sidelines at Celtic, Gerrard’s climb would be tougher and strewn with obstacles. For starters, Rodgers has considerably more experience as a manager. The only managerial experience on Gerrard’s resume is his current gig as head coach of Liverpool’s youth team. He’s only been in that role since January 2017.

In November 2016, just days before retiring as a player, Gerrard interviewed for the vacant managerial post at League One club MK Dons, but later said he wasn’t ready for the job. That would have been a better stepping stone for Gerrard and a smaller stage where he could have experimented and even made some mistakes.

What makes Gerrard ready now? The answer to that is unclear. What’s clear is that the stakes are higher at Rangers. This is a club currently tied for third in the Scottish Premier League with Hibernian, behind first-place Celtic and second-place Aberdeen. Celtic clinched the title this past Sunday after downing Rangers 5-0 in the Old Firm derby at Celtic Park. The scoreline was further proof of the bad shape Rangers are in these days.

Rangers’ managerial saga has gone on all season. Graeme Murty was sacked Tuesday after being hired on an interim basis last October, when the club fired Pedro Caixinha. After Rangers failed to lure Derek McInnes away from Aberdeen this past December, Murty was appointed until the end of the season. He was fired just 48 hours after the Celtic rout.

It’s an understatement to say Rangers are not MK Dons. This is a club with history, tradition and an impatient fanbase. The Glasgow-based club have won 54 league titles, more than any other team in Scottish history, along with 27 league cups. The team were also once a contender in Europe, capturing the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1972 and finishing runners-up in the UEFA Cup in 2008.

“Steven Gerrard might go on to be a world-class manager, as he was a player, but I don’t think Rangers have the time to let someone develop. It needs to be someone who knows the league and what is going on,” added Boyd, who plays for Kilmarnock.

Gerrard would have to rebuild this team quickly and turn things around next season. This may be the reason there are so many critics of this potential move.

Former England international John Barnes, who managed Celtic during the 1999-2000 season, even went as far as to warn Gerrard that not even Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp would be able to bring a revival to Rangers.

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In an interview with Sky Sports, Barnes said: “Forget about reputation as a player. What many have to understand is, as I mention, Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp or any other great managers going to Rangers at this moment in time, possibly would not be able to turn it around straight away… If he doesn’t challenge Celtic straight away it’s got nothing to do with his ability.”

Ewan Murray, who writes for the Guardian, said in a column posted Wednesday that the Rangers board has made a series of awful mistakes over the past year. Of signing the ex-Liverpool star, he wrote, “Barring delusion or huge ego, Gerrard must realize he would be pitching up at the OK Corral with a utensil from the Early Learning Centre.

“In no particular order Rangers have an absentee chairman in constant dispute with the takeover panel; two senior players suspended after a dressing room rammy; accounts which illustrate a business kept afloat by director loans and a recently jettisoned interim manager who had been in position since October.”

There’s no way to know at this stage whether Gerrard’s managerial career will look more like Zidane’s or Montella’s, but taking the Rangers job would be a huge risk, for club and manager.