Steven Gerrard & Rangers
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And if goes elsewhere after Rangers and fails? The bar to manage us is extremely high now. And there are many managers who promise a lot and don’t make it. Sure he could manage us but to say it’s almost certain is bizarre. An awful lot will have to go right for him.
Our current manager won back to back titles in a top 5 league with an underdog and reached a CL final.
Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard is on the brink of giving Glasgow Rangers their first Scottish Premier League title since 2011. And more crucially, Rangers' imminent triumph will deprive fierce rivals Celtic of the chance to celebrate a mythical ten in a row - a feat neither of the Glasgow giants has ever achieved.
To mark the moment the Daily Record, Scotland's national daily newspaper, has produced a special pull-out celebrating Gerrard's impact as Rangers' manager.
Steven Gerrard's Liverpool conscience as £28k dressing room collection helped save wrongly accused supporter
Ibrox legend and former Liverpool assistant boss Alex Miller fondly recalls Gerrard's kindness and generosity to a fan and his family.
[article]It's not the header that Alex Miller remembers best.
Nor the celebration. The wheeling away, arms whirling, urging the fans to believe that the biggest comeback in Champions League history was on.
What Liverpool’s assistant manager on the night Steven Gerrard hauled them up by the bootlaces from 3-0 down at the interval to beat AC Milan and win the 2005 Champions League, recalls most vividly was the Anfield captain’s response in the days and weeks that followed.
There was the triumph. Milan were a team of players who needed no first names – Cafu, Maldini, Nesta, Stam, Pirlo, Seedorf, Gattuso, Kaka, Crespo – and going up the tunnel at the break, these swaggering superstars thought they’d won it.
Liverpool looked broken. Three goals down, the fear was the biggest hiding in the history of this tournament’s finals.
But in the 15 minutes that followed, initially chaotic and eventually calm, Gerrard fixed them. The rest is history.
Ghosting in between Nesta and Stam, the captain planted a 54th-minute header behind Dida. By the time an hour had passed it was 3-3 and although the Italians hauled themselves off the floor for the remaining hour, including extra-time, they could not find a way through.
Liverpool lifted the trophy on penalties and while Gerrard was booked to take the fifth spot-kick, he wasn’t needed thanks to Jerzy Dudek’s heroics.
Then came the tragedy. Five days later, some Liverpool fans making their way home via Bulgaria got caught up in a fight that ended with Bulgarian waiter Martin Georgiev suffering a fractured skull after being hit with a stone.
He survived but suffered life-changing injuries.
Liverpool fan Michael Shields, aged 18, was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to 10 years in a Bulgarian prison.
Shields served four years before new evidence came to light that led to a pardon for wrongful conviction.
On the night he was released, Gerrard scored twice for England in a 5-1 rout of Croatia and dedicated his goals to his fellow Scouser.
What the Reds skipper hadn’t made public was that in the wake of Michael’s arrest, he organised for Liverpool players to pay the teenager’s initial legal fees out of their own pockets.
Miller knows this because Gerrard asked him to collect the cash and make sure it got to Michael’s family.
He said: “Steven has a good heart. That’s what I liked most about him, to be honest.
“Forget that he was a terrific football player, he had a good heart.
“The boy got charged after Istanbul and thrown in jail but always maintained his innocence. His family were convinced he was innocent as well and they were told that legal representation would cost them £28,000. It was money they didn’t have.
“His mother was in the papers saying her son didn’t do it but they couldn’t afford to fight the case.
“Steven was reading about the case and came into training, gathered all the players round and said, ‘We’ve got to help this lad’.
“He asked each of them to bring £2000 in cash and the following day they all brought the money in. Steven asked them to give it to me and it went to the family to pay Michael’s legal fees. That’s what I mean when I say he’s got a huge heart.
“Liverpool as a club were like that and there was a lot of support for Michael Shields when he was finally convicted of attempted murder, wrongly as it turned out.”
Miller joined Liverpool in 1999, just as Gerrard was beginning to make his breakthrough at Anfield. The Scot knew within days of arriving that the club had a special home-grown talent on its hands.
Miller added: “He was the kind of young player who wanted to succeed.
“He had that inner drive top professionals need. He could run, he could tackle, he had a fierce determination.
“I’d been in the door a week when Gerard Houllier asked me to have a look at the entire set-up and give him my opinion.
“I said I felt he had a future England captain in the young lad Gerrard.
“He had so many attributes and even at that young age he wouldn’t be dominated by older professionals at the club and in matches. He had a bit about him.
“He was made captain at a fairly young age and was a good one but he wasn’t overly vociferous. What he would do was go and sit with players individually.
“He’d ask them, ‘How can I help you? How can we become better?’.
“He wasn’t the type who would come in and moan at people. He had a very positive attitude, even from a very young age.”
Fast forward to almost three years ago and Gerrard’s arrival at Ibrox for his first managerial job. Miller didn’t doubt for a moment he would succeed. The ex-Rangers player said: “I knew he could handle it. He had the perfect temperament for it. He’s a wee bit streetwise and that helps in Glasgow!
“I knew he’d get respect in the first couple of months because of who he was but if you don’t know what you’re doing, that respect changes after a period of time and people will say, ‘He was a great player but he can’t coach or manage’.
“But he’s gone about it methodically. He’s got decent people round about him as well and the board backed him.
“They were smart enough not to put him in a situation where he had to win the league in the first season or he was out.
“Any team that is going to win the league needs to have clean sheets.
“When I first started in management I spoke to people like Jock Stein, Fergie and Jim McLean. They told me if you keep between 17 and 20 clean sheets in a season you’ll have a chance of Europe.
“If you have between 20 and 25 you’ve got a chance of winning the league and that’s what he’s done this season.”
[/article]
To mark the moment the Daily Record, Scotland's national daily newspaper, has produced a special pull-out celebrating Gerrard's impact as Rangers' manager.
Steven Gerrard's Liverpool conscience as £28k dressing room collection helped save wrongly accused supporter
Ibrox legend and former Liverpool assistant boss Alex Miller fondly recalls Gerrard's kindness and generosity to a fan and his family.
[article]It's not the header that Alex Miller remembers best.
Nor the celebration. The wheeling away, arms whirling, urging the fans to believe that the biggest comeback in Champions League history was on.
What Liverpool’s assistant manager on the night Steven Gerrard hauled them up by the bootlaces from 3-0 down at the interval to beat AC Milan and win the 2005 Champions League, recalls most vividly was the Anfield captain’s response in the days and weeks that followed.
There was the triumph. Milan were a team of players who needed no first names – Cafu, Maldini, Nesta, Stam, Pirlo, Seedorf, Gattuso, Kaka, Crespo – and going up the tunnel at the break, these swaggering superstars thought they’d won it.
Liverpool looked broken. Three goals down, the fear was the biggest hiding in the history of this tournament’s finals.
But in the 15 minutes that followed, initially chaotic and eventually calm, Gerrard fixed them. The rest is history.
Ghosting in between Nesta and Stam, the captain planted a 54th-minute header behind Dida. By the time an hour had passed it was 3-3 and although the Italians hauled themselves off the floor for the remaining hour, including extra-time, they could not find a way through.
Liverpool lifted the trophy on penalties and while Gerrard was booked to take the fifth spot-kick, he wasn’t needed thanks to Jerzy Dudek’s heroics.
Then came the tragedy. Five days later, some Liverpool fans making their way home via Bulgaria got caught up in a fight that ended with Bulgarian waiter Martin Georgiev suffering a fractured skull after being hit with a stone.
He survived but suffered life-changing injuries.
Liverpool fan Michael Shields, aged 18, was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to 10 years in a Bulgarian prison.
Shields served four years before new evidence came to light that led to a pardon for wrongful conviction.
On the night he was released, Gerrard scored twice for England in a 5-1 rout of Croatia and dedicated his goals to his fellow Scouser.
What the Reds skipper hadn’t made public was that in the wake of Michael’s arrest, he organised for Liverpool players to pay the teenager’s initial legal fees out of their own pockets.
Miller knows this because Gerrard asked him to collect the cash and make sure it got to Michael’s family.
He said: “Steven has a good heart. That’s what I liked most about him, to be honest.
“Forget that he was a terrific football player, he had a good heart.
“The boy got charged after Istanbul and thrown in jail but always maintained his innocence. His family were convinced he was innocent as well and they were told that legal representation would cost them £28,000. It was money they didn’t have.
“His mother was in the papers saying her son didn’t do it but they couldn’t afford to fight the case.
“Steven was reading about the case and came into training, gathered all the players round and said, ‘We’ve got to help this lad’.
“He asked each of them to bring £2000 in cash and the following day they all brought the money in. Steven asked them to give it to me and it went to the family to pay Michael’s legal fees. That’s what I mean when I say he’s got a huge heart.
“Liverpool as a club were like that and there was a lot of support for Michael Shields when he was finally convicted of attempted murder, wrongly as it turned out.”
Miller joined Liverpool in 1999, just as Gerrard was beginning to make his breakthrough at Anfield. The Scot knew within days of arriving that the club had a special home-grown talent on its hands.
Miller added: “He was the kind of young player who wanted to succeed.
“He had that inner drive top professionals need. He could run, he could tackle, he had a fierce determination.
“I’d been in the door a week when Gerard Houllier asked me to have a look at the entire set-up and give him my opinion.
“I said I felt he had a future England captain in the young lad Gerrard.
“He had so many attributes and even at that young age he wouldn’t be dominated by older professionals at the club and in matches. He had a bit about him.
“He was made captain at a fairly young age and was a good one but he wasn’t overly vociferous. What he would do was go and sit with players individually.
“He’d ask them, ‘How can I help you? How can we become better?’.
“He wasn’t the type who would come in and moan at people. He had a very positive attitude, even from a very young age.”
Fast forward to almost three years ago and Gerrard’s arrival at Ibrox for his first managerial job. Miller didn’t doubt for a moment he would succeed. The ex-Rangers player said: “I knew he could handle it. He had the perfect temperament for it. He’s a wee bit streetwise and that helps in Glasgow!
“I knew he’d get respect in the first couple of months because of who he was but if you don’t know what you’re doing, that respect changes after a period of time and people will say, ‘He was a great player but he can’t coach or manage’.
“But he’s gone about it methodically. He’s got decent people round about him as well and the board backed him.
“They were smart enough not to put him in a situation where he had to win the league in the first season or he was out.
“Any team that is going to win the league needs to have clean sheets.
“When I first started in management I spoke to people like Jock Stein, Fergie and Jim McLean. They told me if you keep between 17 and 20 clean sheets in a season you’ll have a chance of Europe.
“If you have between 20 and 25 you’ve got a chance of winning the league and that’s what he’s done this season.”
[/article]
Interesting about his positive and comforting nature in private as it is very different from the reputation he earned on the pitch.
Steven Gerrard rebuilding the Rangers institution in Europe will wow Liverpool chiefs more than title glory
Ian is chief Liverpool writer for the ECHO and has known Gerrard for many years ... this is his take.
[article]When Steven Gerrard opted to head north of the border for Ibrox, there were more than a few eyebrows raised among Liverpool supporters.
To many of the Kop faithful, the Anfield legend was already negotiating a carefully-mapped route that would one day see him ensconced in the Reds hotseat as successor to Jurgen Klopp.
Having hung up his boots, Gerrard was cutting his coaching teeth at Liverpool’s Academy, taking charge of the under-18s and helping bring through the likes of future first-teamers Curtis Jones and Neco Williams.
A desire to acquire such experience had been evident when, just days after retiring as a player, he was interviewed for the vacant managerial role at MK Dons only to then indicate he was not ready for the job.
Going through the coaching ranks at Liverpool – first with the Academy and then the first team – was how fans had envisaged Gerrard’s ascent.
The former midfielder, though, has never been one to shirk a challenge, as demonstrated repeatedly during an Anfield career that saw him score 186 goals in 710 appearances.
And while acutely aware there are no shortcuts to the top, the lure of Rangers, and the task of returning them to former glories, simply proved too great to resist.
Observers on Merseyside, while delighted for Gerrard, were also a little bemused.
After all, there were far easier opportunities available than being tasked with ending Celtic’s near-decade of dominance.
But Gerrard quite rightly surmised any job would be difficult as a first-time manager. And if a club the stature of Rangers wanted him, why not?
A career spent working closely with managerial greats such as Rafa Benitez and the late Gerard Houllier – who gave Gerrard his Liverpool debut – has influenced his coaching style.
And the ex-England midfielder has followed the example of Klopp by surrounding himself with talented people he can trust, such as assistant manager Gary McAllister, first-team coach Michael Beale, technical coach Tom Culshaw and club doctor Mark Waller.
Having got to know Gerrard during more than two decades of covering football on Merseyside, there’s no doubt his outlook has been shaped by the extremes experienced during his time at Liverpool.
For every famous night in Istanbul there was a huge disappointment elsewhere, particularly during the divisive ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett that drove the six-time European Cup winners to the brink of administration.
And assuming the responsibility of taking Rangers back to the top is no different to the burden Gerrard carried throughout his Reds career as often the one beaming light during some pretty dark days.
Losing hurts Gerrard. He would often take defeat personally, and the difficult ending to Liverpool’s 2013/14 title campaign even to this day remains somewhat raw.
But the desire to react, to bounce back, is a huge motivational force. As is another somewhat surprising aspect.
“Fear is something that has driven me throughout my career,” he once told me. “The fear of missing out or the fear of losing.
“I suppose that goes hand in hand with the buzz of winning. You have those two extremes, and I'm someone who is aware of both.”
That’s why missing out on silverware during his first two years at Rangers will have only intensified efforts this season to finally bring success back to Ibrox.
Liverpool supporters are undoubtedly keeping a watching brief on Gerrard and will laud the not inconsiderable achievement of knocking Celtic off their perch.
But perhaps of even greater intrigue and encouragement will be how the manager has impressed with Rangers on the European stage, twice guiding his team into the Europa League knockout stages while claiming some notable scalps.
Europe matters to Liverpool. While the incumbent Klopp excels, it was an area where predecessor Brendan Rodgers, Gerrard’s former Old Firm foe, struggled during his time at Anfield.
How Gerrard fares in European competition will be as influential to the Liverpool powerbrokers, if not more so, than any achievements in the domestic Scottish game.
Being the boss of a club with the size and clout of Rangers is ideal preparation for making the step to the Anfield dugout, in much the same way that a playing career as Liverpool’s local hero steeled Gerrard for the goldfish bowl of Glasgow.
Comparisons will inevitably be drawn with Graeme Souness, another Liverpool midfield colossus who transformed Rangers as manager during the 1980s before returning to Anfield as boss in 1991.
Souness, though, arrived at a club in tumult following the resignation of Kenny Dalglish while still coming to terms with the disasters of Hillsborough and Heysel.
By his own admission, Souness changed too much too soon in attempting to drag Liverpool towards the new millennium, and also had to deal with the decline of several players with whom he had played at Anfield – something that wouldn’t be an issue for Gerrard.
That, however, is all a long way down the line.
Gerrard may well end up as Liverpool boss in the future. For now, Reds supporters continue to be hugely impressed at how the Anfield legend is forging a reputation by rebuilding an institution.[/article]
Steven Gerrard and the Istanbul-style Liverpool school miracle that spared his grateful PE teacher's blushes
Steve Monaghan admits he had flashbacks while watching the Kop icon on the famous night in the Champions League Final of 2005.
[article]
Long before the Miracle of Istanbul, Steven Gerrard inspired his team to a three-goal second-half comeback that hinted at the Champions League glory night which defines his playing career.
It arrived at the end of his first year of high school.
The trophy was the Liverpool Cup rather than the Champions League, the team Cardinal Heenan and not his beloved Liverpool, the opponents Blue Coat as opposed to AC Milan.
And the venue was the Penny Lane council pitches – a world away from the 76,000-capacity Ataturk Olympic Stadium.
The man barking instructions from the touchline was Gerrard’s former PE teacher Steve Monaghan instead of multiple major winner Rafa Benitez.
But while the elements of the stories – 13 years apart – are vastly different, they sum up the drive, desire and talent that made Gerrard the legendary player he was.
Monaghan said: “I joined Cardinal Heenan in 1991, the same year as Steven. I was told my team had a ‘good one’ and that much was clear from his very first game.
“It was Under-12s and we played against Savio in Bootle, where Jamie Carragher attended.
“Steven scored one in a 4-0 win. He played in midfield and was one of the smallest on the pitch. But I remember phoning my dad Frank that night and saying, ‘Dad, next time you come down you’ve got to watch this lad. I’ve seen nothing like it’.
“I said if he didn’t make it then I didn’t know who could because he was phenomenal.
“At that time I also played for an amateur team. I was raving about this young lad to my team-mates and said they had to come and see him.
“A lot of them watched Liverpool on a Saturday and didn’t get a chance to come along.
“But at the end of that first year we played in a cup final against another local school called Blue Coat and they agreed to come along.
“I was excited for them to see him but we had a c**p first half and were losing 3-0 at half-time. I was thinking I’d end up with egg on my face.
“But Steven took the game by the scruff of the neck and scored two – one a header and one a volley – and we came back to win 4-3.
“And when I watched him in the 2005 Champions League Final, memories of that day came flooding back.”
Away from school, Gerrard honed his skills in the tough Bluebell Estate in the close-knit, working-class Huyton area of Merseyside where Peter Reid and Joey Barton grew up.
He learned in the school of hard knocks, holding his own against boys years older, friends of his brother Paul. The family home was No.10 Ironside Road, which was outside the catchment area for Cardinal Heenan. However, dad Paul and mum Julie were keen for him to attend the school in West Derby.
Monaghan, a native of the north east village of Consett in County Durham, kept in touch with Gerrard when he became a Liverpool star and tickets would be left in his name at St James’ Park when the Reds played against his beloved Newcastle.
Gerrard also made frequent trips back to his old school, including one with former Rangers manager Walter Smith when he was in charge of Everton to open a sports complex.
Retired Monaghan, 67, said: “I last met Steven when he took the Liverpool youth team and had a chat with him. If it hadn’t been for the pandemic then I’d have gone to Ibrox to watch a game.
“I had mates who were Liverpool fans. We went to my village in the north east when they were playing at St James’ Park and Steven would leave tickets in an envelope for ‘Mr Monaghan’. The lads loved that.
“Steven wasn’t an angel at school but he was never in major trouble. He was well liked. He wasn’t a big head and that’s what I liked about him.
“I was also year head and probably tried to keep his feet on the ground and not let him get big-headed. There were 170-odd pupils in the year and you had to treat each lad the same.
“You don’t put anyone on a pedestal but he didn’t show off or denigrate anyone who wasn’t as good as him. The school is in West Derby and he was from neighbouring Huyton so wasn’t in the catchment area.
“But his cousin had been to our school and also Steven played Sunday league football with the son of another PE teacher, Mr Chadwick.
“Steven’s dad used that connection to get him in. The family wanted him to go to Heenan as it was an all-boys school and the system was good.
“The school was accused of poaching him but the family wanted him to go there for the education, as well as the football team.
“He was small until he got the growth spurt and even then he was a year behind.
“He didn’t really fill out until Under-16s so he was always one of the smallest on the pitch.
“But his tackling was ferocious, his distribution was exceptional and the thing that stood out was that cross-field ball that became his trademark. Tom Culshaw, now a coach at Ibrox, was the year above.
“He went to the FA School of Excellence at Lilleshall but Steven missed out on England Schoolboys.
“I remember going down to watch him in a trial and I was confident he would get picked but he didn’t.
“I later heard through the grapevine it was because the coach felt he didn’t get box to box. I had to laugh at that years later.
“When he made his England debut against Ukraine in 2000 I sent a text saying, ‘It’s a long way from Penny Lane to Wembley’.
“Sky Sports called me up to do an interview and I said he’d be England captain one day. I was proved right and I’m so pleased he’s going to bring success to Rangers as a manager.”
[/article]
I think he needs to. I think that dream is what gets him up in the morning, i really do.
It's the smell of her farts, isn't it?
Difference between Stevie G and Lampard ... One was doing really well, and went far far too early for the 'big fish' ... the other is doing really well, and will soon become a legend at a club.
Was he doing really well? He had a 42% win percentage at Derby.
He had them close to promotion - that's doing well imo.
Really fucks me off when so many of he media and even some on here compare SG, to Lampard in any way. Lampard was a good player but for me - he played in one of the best resourced teams in PL history at Chelsea. SG had to suffer and play with many shit players during his time with us, and still managed to shine and pull the team to perform. Truth is the southern media just fucking love "Frank" - he talks their red top trash talk bollox, and is also probably the main reason why SG never had a consistently good time with England because every manager was pressured into playing them both when really they only ever would want to have SG as the attacking midfielder. The skill difference between the two is day and night - Steven Gerard was an unbelievable player - the likes of which we will be lucky to see again in another 100 years, I mean he was like a super-hero for this club.
I already know what happens if you have Frank in a team with bad attitude players or some shit players ... they get relegated - just ask West Ham supporters. Fuck Lampard, SG was in a class of his own in his prime, there is no comparison.
I already know what happens if you have Frank in a team with bad attitude players or some shit players ... they get relegated - just ask West Ham supporters. Fuck Lampard, SG was in a class of his own in his prime, there is no comparison.
[article]“Have you ever seen Gerrard win the league?” goes the mocking chant with a rather course response. But right now, Steven Gerrard stands within just seven points of his first league title as a player or manager thanks to the demolition job Rangers have done on the Scottish Premiership this season.
It seems anomalous that Gerrard should have played almost his entire career at Liverpool, one of English football’s most storied clubs, without winning a league title. But he stands alongside Bobby Moore as one of only two 100-cap England players never to have lifted a championship. In management, though, he is set to end his drought just three years in, and in the most spectacular of fashions.
Rangers are not just set to end Celtic’s bid for a historic 10th title win in a row, but they are also within eight games of completing an unbeaten league season. They have an 18-point advantage over their city rivals, who have dropped off the pace so badly it is arguable that Rangers could pack up now and they still wouldn’t be caught. And while the contributions of players like Alfredo Morelos, James Tavernier and Connor Goldson cannot be overlooked, Gerrard’s transformation of the Gers has been remarkable.
When he took over in the summer of 2018, Rangers were reeling from a season in which they had finished a distant third to Celtic and Aberdeen, been knocked out of the Europa League in the first qualifying round by Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn, and gone through three managerial regimes.
Following the October sacking of Pedro Caixinha, Graeme Murty had been put in caretaker charge for the remainder of the season, but after a 5-0 mauling at Celtic three weeks from the season’s end, the former Reading defender was replaced by Jimmy Nicholl while the club waited on the arrival of Gerrard.
Since the Liverpool legend came in, Rangers have steadily made a title win inevitable. In his first term, Gerrard led the club into the Europa League group stage while also narrowing the gap on Celtic with a second-place finish. In the Covid-affected 2019-20 campaign, Rangers dropped away post-Christmas having initially taken the advantage from Celtic at the top, while in Europe they made the last 16 thanks to fantastic home victories over Feyenoord and Porto in the group stage as well as an epic home-and-away success against Braga in the round of 32.
But since being eliminated by Bayer Leverkusen in their delayed second leg back in August, Rangers have lost only once in 41 matches in all competitions – a Betfred Cup quarter-final exit to St Mirren in December – as Gerrard has injected the kind of uncompromising desire for success which he had seen Liverpool deliver when he was growing up in the 1980s.
They simply have not let up, and what’s more, they are well placed to repeat last season’s European efforts thanks to a stirring 4-3 win away to Royal Antwerp in their first leg in the round of 32 last week. But it is in the Scottish Premiership that they have their main goal in their sights.
Even now, with a maximum of seven points needed from their final eight games, Gerrard won’t stand for a drop in intensity. “The one thing I won’t do is get carried away too soon,” he insisted after the 4-1 win against Dundee United on Sunday. “We have got to finish the job. The opportunity is there for us but we have won nothing yet.
“The main thing that has pleased me at the moment is that the players are really in the zone. I can see the focus, I can see the determination.”
For a man in his first job, Gerrard has done fantastically well. Sure, there will be questions about the standard of the Scottish leagues compared to years gone by, but the Rangers of today and the side of 2018 could hardly be more different thanks to what the 40-year-old has brought to Ibrox.
Where there was lethargy, complacency and inadequacy there is now desire, professionalism and ruthlessness. Very soon, and perhaps as early as 6 March, Rangers will be Scottish champions for the 55th time, and the first since their very public financial meltdown and subsequent liquidation of 2012 which resulted in them starting again from the Third Division.
It has been a very long road back, but the toil will only make Gerrard’s first-ever league title even sweeter.
[/article]
It seems anomalous that Gerrard should have played almost his entire career at Liverpool, one of English football’s most storied clubs, without winning a league title. But he stands alongside Bobby Moore as one of only two 100-cap England players never to have lifted a championship. In management, though, he is set to end his drought just three years in, and in the most spectacular of fashions.
Rangers are not just set to end Celtic’s bid for a historic 10th title win in a row, but they are also within eight games of completing an unbeaten league season. They have an 18-point advantage over their city rivals, who have dropped off the pace so badly it is arguable that Rangers could pack up now and they still wouldn’t be caught. And while the contributions of players like Alfredo Morelos, James Tavernier and Connor Goldson cannot be overlooked, Gerrard’s transformation of the Gers has been remarkable.
When he took over in the summer of 2018, Rangers were reeling from a season in which they had finished a distant third to Celtic and Aberdeen, been knocked out of the Europa League in the first qualifying round by Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn, and gone through three managerial regimes.
Following the October sacking of Pedro Caixinha, Graeme Murty had been put in caretaker charge for the remainder of the season, but after a 5-0 mauling at Celtic three weeks from the season’s end, the former Reading defender was replaced by Jimmy Nicholl while the club waited on the arrival of Gerrard.
Since the Liverpool legend came in, Rangers have steadily made a title win inevitable. In his first term, Gerrard led the club into the Europa League group stage while also narrowing the gap on Celtic with a second-place finish. In the Covid-affected 2019-20 campaign, Rangers dropped away post-Christmas having initially taken the advantage from Celtic at the top, while in Europe they made the last 16 thanks to fantastic home victories over Feyenoord and Porto in the group stage as well as an epic home-and-away success against Braga in the round of 32.
But since being eliminated by Bayer Leverkusen in their delayed second leg back in August, Rangers have lost only once in 41 matches in all competitions – a Betfred Cup quarter-final exit to St Mirren in December – as Gerrard has injected the kind of uncompromising desire for success which he had seen Liverpool deliver when he was growing up in the 1980s.
They simply have not let up, and what’s more, they are well placed to repeat last season’s European efforts thanks to a stirring 4-3 win away to Royal Antwerp in their first leg in the round of 32 last week. But it is in the Scottish Premiership that they have their main goal in their sights.
Even now, with a maximum of seven points needed from their final eight games, Gerrard won’t stand for a drop in intensity. “The one thing I won’t do is get carried away too soon,” he insisted after the 4-1 win against Dundee United on Sunday. “We have got to finish the job. The opportunity is there for us but we have won nothing yet.
“The main thing that has pleased me at the moment is that the players are really in the zone. I can see the focus, I can see the determination.”
For a man in his first job, Gerrard has done fantastically well. Sure, there will be questions about the standard of the Scottish leagues compared to years gone by, but the Rangers of today and the side of 2018 could hardly be more different thanks to what the 40-year-old has brought to Ibrox.
Where there was lethargy, complacency and inadequacy there is now desire, professionalism and ruthlessness. Very soon, and perhaps as early as 6 March, Rangers will be Scottish champions for the 55th time, and the first since their very public financial meltdown and subsequent liquidation of 2012 which resulted in them starting again from the Third Division.
It has been a very long road back, but the toil will only make Gerrard’s first-ever league title even sweeter.
[/article]
Frank Lampard took over a team that had come 6th with 75 points. After a "brilliant" first season where he was supported in the transfer window, Derby County finished 6th with 74 points. Not quite sure where this Frank Lampard did very well at Derby narrative is coming from
Yes or No, he had them close to promotion?
Didn't Derby's push come mostly from Mount & Abraham, both who came because of Lampard's connections?
Steven Gerrard Rangers trait draws Sir Alex Ferguson comparison as mindset expert blown away by Glasgow trip
[article]
Allistair McCaw is a man who knows what he’s talking about.
More importantly, when he opens his mouth some of the world’s leading sportspeople and clubs listen.
They flock to this Belfast-born South African-raised, who lives in Florida and pre-pandemic jetted the globe dispensing advice on the power of positive thinking to those striving to be better versions of themselves.
He describes himself as a sports performance consultant, mindset coach and team culture builder but labels don’t matter to McCaw. More important is seeing the people or clubs he speaks to taking his advice on board, making it work and changing themselves or their working environment for the better. Clubs like Rangers.
This time last year McCaw flew to Europe to spend three days at the Rangers Training Centre before heading to PSG. But it wasn’t the impact he made on Steven Gerrard’s coaching and backroom team McCaw remembers most vividly. It was the impact they made on him.
Now, 12 months on, Rangers are within touching distance of an achievement McCaw believes is phenomenal given Gerrard and first-team coach Michael Beale, a personal friend, have completely turned around a culture of chaos and defeatism.
He said: “The change in mindset they’ve instilled in less than three years is phenomenal. It’s all about building the right culture and they’ve done that.
“This time last year I met Steven at the Rangers training ground. His leadership skills are exceptional. You’ve seen that from him even as a kid coming through the Liverpool academy. He’s a natural leader that doesn’t necessarily have to say much.
“You get different types of leader. Some are vocal, some aren’t and Steven’s not too vocal. He leads by example.
“I remember one of the days I was at the training ground, noticing how good he was with the players in the cafeteria, downstairs, outside on the pitch. How he moved between the players. You can’t deny his leadership skills are world class.
“One of the days I was leaving the training ground at around 7pm and as I passed the gym there was only one guy working out in there – it was Steven.
“He was one of the few guys left in the building. They talk about first in, last out, which is a bit of a cliche. We know Alex Ferguson was that person but there are similar traits with Gerrard.
“I was there on a consulting basis, peaking to the performance team and the medical team.
“The invitation was actually from their head of performance Jordan Milsom, who was also at Liverpool with Steven. He’s another world class guy on their team. If there’s one common denominator with the guys there it’s they are just great with people.
“Steven has surrounded himself not just with great people in their own fields of expertise but with great people.”
One of them, McCaw insists, is Beale. He wouldn’t liken many coaches he’s met with Jose Mourinho but he reckons Beale’s thirst for knowledge is up there with the Portuguese.
He said: “Michael’s not one to seek the limelight or want to be the main guy. He’s just incredibly passionate about football and about people. I met him five or six years ago. I was speaking at a football event in London. I was sitting at the back of the class, waiting to speak, and he got up to speak before me.
“I didn’t know who he was at the time but when I learned what he’d done and listened to him that day, my first impression was, ‘This guy is going to go on to great things’.
“I saw the potential. At that point he’d worked with Chelsea and Liverpool’s youth set-ups but even on that day, when he was giving a speech, he was also a student of the class, listening and soaking up information and being very humble. Steven has obviously been around a lot of elite coaches and elite environments. He has taken time to choose the right people he wants around him and Michael is one of them, for sure.
“Michael strikes me as Mourinho-like in terms of his passion and his commitment to learning more and more.
“He’s a student of the sport. He’s very curious; very sceptical. He asks a lot of questions. That’s a sign of humility as well. You’re not talking about yourself. You’re asking questions.
“He’s always had time for me. When I go to Glasgow he always makes time to meet up. The last time it was actually after a midweek game and he still met up with me about 11pm for a chat.
“I’ve been lucky to spend a lot of time around great coaches in many different sports and every now and again, you see a Michael Beale and you know there’s something special there. I saw that in him seven years ago, sitting in the back of a class.”
As a lifelong Liverpool fan, McCaw would love to see Gerrard return to his spiritual home at some point. Rangers fans will be happy to hear he doesn’t think the time is right. Yet.
He said: “Without a doubt he’d love to be the Liverpool manager. The Liverpool fans would love that as well. I don’t know if that will be after Klopp or maybe he will need a little bit more time, which right now, I think he does.
“But it is interesting Steven’s Rangers contract ends at the same time as Klopp’s does at Liverpool.
“The next two years is going to determine what happens, in terms of the future of both managers. It’s so tough to say right now. Liverpool are going through their first dip in three years and it’s going to be interesting to see how that pans out.”
First, though, there’s a title in Scotland to be clinched. McCaw said: Steven came in with a long-term vision of wanting to take Rangers back to the top and it looks like it’s going to happen this season.
“He’s known the people he needed for that journey. Great leaders get the best people around them. They bring in the people who can help them get to where they want to be.
“He knew what he needed and it’s all coming to fruition now. It’s an incredible job, it really is.
“Look at the void left at Man United after Ferguson, how long it has taken them to get back to a challenging position.
“It’s tough and Steven has done it at Rangers in less than three years. It has been underestimated how exceptional that turnaround has been.”[/article]
[article]
Allistair McCaw is a man who knows what he’s talking about.
More importantly, when he opens his mouth some of the world’s leading sportspeople and clubs listen.
They flock to this Belfast-born South African-raised, who lives in Florida and pre-pandemic jetted the globe dispensing advice on the power of positive thinking to those striving to be better versions of themselves.
He describes himself as a sports performance consultant, mindset coach and team culture builder but labels don’t matter to McCaw. More important is seeing the people or clubs he speaks to taking his advice on board, making it work and changing themselves or their working environment for the better. Clubs like Rangers.
This time last year McCaw flew to Europe to spend three days at the Rangers Training Centre before heading to PSG. But it wasn’t the impact he made on Steven Gerrard’s coaching and backroom team McCaw remembers most vividly. It was the impact they made on him.
Now, 12 months on, Rangers are within touching distance of an achievement McCaw believes is phenomenal given Gerrard and first-team coach Michael Beale, a personal friend, have completely turned around a culture of chaos and defeatism.
He said: “The change in mindset they’ve instilled in less than three years is phenomenal. It’s all about building the right culture and they’ve done that.
“This time last year I met Steven at the Rangers training ground. His leadership skills are exceptional. You’ve seen that from him even as a kid coming through the Liverpool academy. He’s a natural leader that doesn’t necessarily have to say much.
“You get different types of leader. Some are vocal, some aren’t and Steven’s not too vocal. He leads by example.
“I remember one of the days I was at the training ground, noticing how good he was with the players in the cafeteria, downstairs, outside on the pitch. How he moved between the players. You can’t deny his leadership skills are world class.
“One of the days I was leaving the training ground at around 7pm and as I passed the gym there was only one guy working out in there – it was Steven.
“He was one of the few guys left in the building. They talk about first in, last out, which is a bit of a cliche. We know Alex Ferguson was that person but there are similar traits with Gerrard.
“I was there on a consulting basis, peaking to the performance team and the medical team.
“The invitation was actually from their head of performance Jordan Milsom, who was also at Liverpool with Steven. He’s another world class guy on their team. If there’s one common denominator with the guys there it’s they are just great with people.
“Steven has surrounded himself not just with great people in their own fields of expertise but with great people.”
One of them, McCaw insists, is Beale. He wouldn’t liken many coaches he’s met with Jose Mourinho but he reckons Beale’s thirst for knowledge is up there with the Portuguese.
He said: “Michael’s not one to seek the limelight or want to be the main guy. He’s just incredibly passionate about football and about people. I met him five or six years ago. I was speaking at a football event in London. I was sitting at the back of the class, waiting to speak, and he got up to speak before me.
“I didn’t know who he was at the time but when I learned what he’d done and listened to him that day, my first impression was, ‘This guy is going to go on to great things’.
“I saw the potential. At that point he’d worked with Chelsea and Liverpool’s youth set-ups but even on that day, when he was giving a speech, he was also a student of the class, listening and soaking up information and being very humble. Steven has obviously been around a lot of elite coaches and elite environments. He has taken time to choose the right people he wants around him and Michael is one of them, for sure.
“Michael strikes me as Mourinho-like in terms of his passion and his commitment to learning more and more.
“He’s a student of the sport. He’s very curious; very sceptical. He asks a lot of questions. That’s a sign of humility as well. You’re not talking about yourself. You’re asking questions.
“He’s always had time for me. When I go to Glasgow he always makes time to meet up. The last time it was actually after a midweek game and he still met up with me about 11pm for a chat.
“I’ve been lucky to spend a lot of time around great coaches in many different sports and every now and again, you see a Michael Beale and you know there’s something special there. I saw that in him seven years ago, sitting in the back of a class.”
As a lifelong Liverpool fan, McCaw would love to see Gerrard return to his spiritual home at some point. Rangers fans will be happy to hear he doesn’t think the time is right. Yet.
He said: “Without a doubt he’d love to be the Liverpool manager. The Liverpool fans would love that as well. I don’t know if that will be after Klopp or maybe he will need a little bit more time, which right now, I think he does.
“But it is interesting Steven’s Rangers contract ends at the same time as Klopp’s does at Liverpool.
“The next two years is going to determine what happens, in terms of the future of both managers. It’s so tough to say right now. Liverpool are going through their first dip in three years and it’s going to be interesting to see how that pans out.”
First, though, there’s a title in Scotland to be clinched. McCaw said: Steven came in with a long-term vision of wanting to take Rangers back to the top and it looks like it’s going to happen this season.
“He’s known the people he needed for that journey. Great leaders get the best people around them. They bring in the people who can help them get to where they want to be.
“He knew what he needed and it’s all coming to fruition now. It’s an incredible job, it really is.
“Look at the void left at Man United after Ferguson, how long it has taken them to get back to a challenging position.
“It’s tough and Steven has done it at Rangers in less than three years. It has been underestimated how exceptional that turnaround has been.”[/article]
It’s hard not to give your best for a person like Stevie.
Personally, following Rangers' progress this season has been a remedy to the sorrow suffered from our dismal season - thus the regular spams on this thread 😳😛.
Derby County under Gary Rowett (in the previous season) qualified for the playoff finishing sixth. They faced Fulham. Won the first leg 1-0 and lost the second leg 2-0 and missed qualifying for the playoff final.
Derby County under Lampard (the next season) qualified for the playoff finishing sixth. They faced Leeds. Lost the first leg 1-0 and won the second leg 4-2 and qualified for the playoff final.
So identical record as the previous manager except for one game where they qualified for the playoffs on goal difference. I am not trying to argue with you. I have no idea of the championship and maybe I am missing the context. The way I see it the only difference I see from Rowett is one extra goal in one game. And Lampard was decently backed in the transfer window. Maybe I am missing something.
Just looking at the numbers, I just don't see where this Lampard did very well at Derby narrative is coming from. If he has shown enough at Derby to warrant a promising young manager status, so has Gary Rowett.
Zero chance unless he wins a major league.
Are you saying Scotland isn't a major league? They have two of the biggest teams in the world...........
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