Steven Gerrard made controversial comments when he stated publicly that his players weren’t winners, that they weren’t mentally strong enough.

There’s an interesting twist no one has thought of – neither is Gerrard himself.

Remember, he’s a born winner as a player, but as manager it’s completely different.

Look at the number of colossally successful players who went into management and simply didn’t have it – while Stevie has done better than many of them in terms of overall performance, it would be absolutely false to say he’s a winning manager.

In fact, as Ibrox Noise’s Derek said, it becomes clear at times that Gerrard thinks he’s still the captain, and not the manager.

And while we have recognised the good he has done in the hotseat, it is also patently clear that winning as a player and winning as a manager are two completely different things.

Gerrard himself needs to be mentally strong enough to manage his side to the finish line, has to be a winner himself as a manager. It’s not enough to be a winner as a player, and just assume that’ll be enough.

Remember our greatest manager of modern times had the most modest of football careers before he went into coaching, and Jose Mourinho, one of the greatest ever managers, period, didn’t play a minute of professional football before going into management. And yet these guys were born managerial winners.

So having a massive football career and being a legend on the pitch doesn’t categorically mean you will be a similar winner as manager:

It’s a completely different ball game.

Whether Stevie will become a winning manager, time will tell. For the sake of our club, we hope he does although with present form it’s looking ominous.

But winning is not just about your past, it’s about being able to do it again. In your current position. And on that level our manager is at best unproven and at worst isn’t a winner any more than the players are.