Dramatic developments at Ibrox have left Stevie G reeling

We’d love to start this piece by saying ‘on the face of it, all is well’ but Steven Gerrard’s own testimony suggests Rangers’ manager is deeply troubled by the resignation of Mark Allen, the man who he admitted ‘sold’ Rangers to him.

Before he corrected himself and said Rangers didn’t need selling, he’d already betrayed the truth and admitted he wouldn’t have become Rangers manager without Mark Allen enticing him north.

Furthermore, with the manager admitting in the earlier spells of his tenure as boss that the management team was by no means just him alone, and included McAllister, Scoulding and Allen, it is a clearly massive loss to him to see Allen move on.

There are some theories and claims in the press as to why the ex-City youth coach resigned, and we must admit the out of the blue nature of it lends more credence to these than normal, but there is little doubt Allen’s departure will be sorely felt by Gerrard more than most.

It seems Allen was more or less Gerrard’s biggest liaise, with the two of them working on recruitment all throughout the summer – and trying to ship out deadweights.

And Gerrard’s quotes have been, it must be said, very negative since Allen moved on:

“It doesn’t change things for me in terms of my role. But there is a void there at the moment. Mark has been brilliant for me and given me incredible support. He sold the job to me – not that it needed selling – as the man who came and got me, which I’ll always appreciate. But I totally respect and understand his decision. He has lived away from his family for two years and he was brought into this club at a time when it needed shaking up. Mark was the person and the character to do that and get the club where it is now. I would have wanted him to stay around a bit longer.”

This really does sting, on a number of levels. Gerrard clearly revealing that he wanted Allen to remain at Ibrox, and that really if it wasn’t for him, Stevie wouldn’t have come north.

The word ‘void’ is significant – it’s clear he and Allen were close, not just on a professional level but as friends too, and while we’ll cover more about this in another entry, we have to say our manager’s quotes are far from positive about the change.

This story may be far from over.