The Gerrard Ultimatum
There is now only one scenario which would appear to fit Steven Gerrard at Ibrox.
He couldn’t stop Eight in a Row for Celtic. He won’t be able to prevent Nine in a Row. The question is does he want to stay, halt Ten in a Row and win the global affection that came Wim Jansen’s way when he performed that task for Celtic in 1998?
Gerrard has never hidden his ambition to be Liverpool manager one day.
So does he hang in there at Ibrox and use Rangers as his managerial launch pad, or does he get out in case Glasgow becomes his managerial burial ground?
It is a conundrum Gerrard has to ponder under trying circumstances.
If you have one team who can do no wrong, as witnessed by ten straight wins in league and cup since the end of the winter break, and another team who can’t do anything right domestically speaking, as evidenced by the loss of ten league points since the end of the winter break, then there’s little doubt about who will win the league title at the end of the season.
And the situation might have been even more parlous for Rangers.
But for Ianis Hagi’s goal six minutes from time against Hibs at Ibrox, Rangers could have dropped another two points.
And only the thickness of the goalpost at the Broomloan Road end of Ibrox prevented Livingston’s Lyndon Dykes from getting his side a draw there as well.
Rangers went away to Dubai for the winter break just two points behind Celtic and with a game in hand over them.
Some other bunch of guys came back in their place and the league season has fallen apart as a consequence.
It would be an insult to Celtic to say that Rangers have thrown anything away. They didn’t have anything to throw away in the first place and Neil Lennon’s side have demonstrated extraordinary resilience with a string of wins that owe nothing to luck.
But Rangers’ collapse does ask more questions than Bradley Walsh does in The Chase.
Among them being what a two month long collapse is doing for Gerrard’s reputation in the wider sense. He gave a high profile newspaper interview at the weekend which was conducted by Gerrard’s former Liverpool team-mate, Danny Murphy.
It’s the kind of media vehicle which is used by high profile personalities to remind the folks down south that they’re still there and available for hire should the need arise.
And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Brendan Rodgers would occasionally grant an audience to one of the big hitters from across the border when he was at Celtic.
A year ago this week it paid off for him when Leicester City needed a new manager and he left Celtic with a league title still not secured.
The difference is that, by then, Rodgers had already won an historic Double Treble and was revered by the Celtic fans. That status has since been the subject of a review by many fans, but that’s another story.
Gerrard has won the square root of nothing and may be subconsciously wondering if he can afford to hang around here for much longer while there seems to be no end in sight to Celtic’s domestic domination.
Does he gamble on Celtic selling Odsonne Edouard and Callum McGregor in the summer and banking a fortune?
Might Celtic fail to get Fraser Forster from Southampton on a permanent basis?
In the meantime, and of more pressing concern, is Gerrard’s every move now being called into question.
Recruitment?
Ryan Kent is the second most expensive signing in Rangers’ history, not that you’d have noticed at Perth on Sunday during the course of the latest self-inflicted wound inflicted during a tortuous end to the season.
Reputation?
Callers to Superscoreboard on Sunday wondered aloud if Gerrard gets an easy ride from the media because of his name.
Not at all in my opinion. He is commended for being an articulate front man for his club and never shirks from telling the truth as he sees it when adversity comes calling.
If he was being given an easy ride he wouldn’t need to bare his soul when the excrement hits the ventilating machine because he wouldn’t be asked about it in the first place.
I always remember a withering put down from decades ago when Bertie Auld was managing Hibs. The wee man missed Glasgow and the edgier atmosphere to be found there. He summed it all up one day by saying, “See if I burned down that school (which was then adjacent to Easter Road before re-building) nobody would ask me why I did it.”
That’s what an easy ride looks like.
I simply wonder if Gerrard fully appreciated what he was taking on when he accepted the job at Rangers.
Celtic had significant momentum, better players, far more cash and a successful business model when Steven traded a comfort zone for a problem area.
If Rangers go out of the Europa League against Braga on Wednesday night, and even Gerrard has floated the possibility in public, the rumbling and grumbling gathers pace.
And if Rangers exit the Scottish Cup by losing to Hearts on Saturday evening then it is the official opening of crisis time.
There is, of course, another scenario and that is Rangers beat Braga and hammer Hearts. At which point the manager gets to fight another day.
But the man who inspired the Miracle in Istanbul for Liverpool now has a job on his hands which is beginning to make that triumph look like child’s play.