Steven Gerrard announces status of Umar Sadiq

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has dropped his biggest confirmation yet that Umar Sadiq’s loan spell at Ibrox is likely to be cut short and the player returned to Italy in January, following his latest comments to the media.

The Roma striker, 21, has been a painful disaster in Scotland so far, and his game has evidently not suited the Scottish style of physicality.

Scouts watching him had expressed praise in Italy that he was able to adapt his unorthodox style to suit Serie A then the Eredivisie, but it seems that adaptation has gone less swimmingly in the SPL.

And his loan manager Gerrard has evidently run out of patience with the ex-Breda man.

He said:

“It’s a frustration (losing Alfredo) – we lose a player in form and we are going to have to find a way to get the job done without a natural nine unless Sadiq comes to the party and improves an awful lot between now and then.”

Reaction to this quote has been rather mixed – some fans praise his absolute honesty in stating Sadiq’s inadequacy, and for keeping supporters in the loop as to his progress, while others have been more critical, stating this is poor management and will only crush the lad’s confidence further.

We are well aware Gerrard has previous for singling players out for both praise and criticism, and this style is really nothing new, but this criticism did seem rather brutal and a touch counterproductive – Gerrard is right to say we have a pickle for the semi-final and that effectively we currently have no 9 at all for the match, but maybe he was less right to say it publicly?

We are full of praise for SG – we are loving his start to life at Ibrox, but as we said in our previous piece commending him for being so Walter-esque, we equally conceded he will make errors too as he learns his trade.

And we can’t help thinking insulting a current player who is doing everything in his power to ‘get to the party’ probably counts among those errors!

That equally said, it just highlights how desperately far off the pace Sadiq is, and how unlikely he currently seems to be to survive beyond January.