Steven Gerrard drops massive hint about Umar Sadiq

Steven Gerrard has as good as admitted summer loan signing Umar Sadiq is not in his plans and is likely to leave in January.

The Nigeria U23 striker, whose career record is nevertheless impressive, has not settled in Scotland and has been unable to impact on the first team in his time north of the border, leading many to doubt if he had any kind of a future at Ibrox with us now nearing October.

And if the manager’s testimony is anything to go by, he doesn’t. He said:

“If you’re asking me if I’d want the four of them for next year, I’d sign them right now. We rate them highly. In an ideal world, they’d all be on four or five-year deals but unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. We have to be respectful to their parent clubs. I’m still in Jurgen Klopp’s good books, so if Liverpool keep winning maybe there’s some scope.”

The ‘four of them’ referred to Ryan Kent, Ovie Ejaria, Joe Worrall and Lassana Coulibaly and explicitly omitted the on-loan giant from Roma, suggesting his time in Govan is derailing rapidly.

A telling absence from Tuesday’s reserve fixture at St Andrews, Sadiq was included for the trip to Spain and made the bench but given Alfredo Morelos’ suspension this was down to striking numbers rather than anything else.

It’s a shame, as the lad clearly has something about him – you don’t score a healthy number in Holland for a struggling team or a few for Roma in Serie A or indeed a very respectable amount for your country if you can’t play, but evidently, as yet, it doesn’t appear he has settled in the SPL.

There may be time for a shock turnaround, but going by Steven Gerrard’s comments, he isn’t expecting one.