Eight fails of Steven Gerrard

Ok, we’re going to put out what we admit is probably a pretty bitter-sounding article. We prepare you for a critical and negative piece which gets to the heart of many of our thoughts right now and if you only want an article praising the ex-manager then this one isn’t for you. Emotional yes, heat of the moment, yes, but isn’t football?

Right, where do we begin here.

Only 10 days ago he mocked the media and Emma Dodds for asking him if he had designs on leaving, and the man, with a very smug and condescending face, said no. He derided the question.

That ‘don’t ask stupid questions’ quote is currently haunting Gerrard, and is being repeated by thousands of fans this morning perplexed and appalled at him for ‘talking sh*t’.

But that’s not the only issue.

If we were to list every single Gerrard failing we’d be here till next Christmas, so we’ll list a few key ones.

1: One trophy in 3 and a half seasons. While he (Michael Beale, let’s face it) stopped *10IAR, and got us our craved-for 55, something we won’t forget nor revise history over, nevertheless his record with Rangers and £35M over those 3 seasons was, quite simply, terrible.

His cup record was a disgrace, we’re not going to dress it up, and only making one final of 6 chances was, frankly, pathetic.

2: Refusing to drop his mates. We could reel off a hundred players Gerrard had appalling favouritism towards, but the biggest villain is of course Connor Goldson. Never dropped once under this manager for tactical reasons. James Tavernier too, never really had to work for his slot till Patterson showed up. There are others who kept their jersey when playing badly.

3: Lies. He told a LOT of porkies. The ‘7-10 days’ came from Mark Warburton and John Eustace saga from 2016, but Gerrard sure took it further and lied frequently in pressers. We spent a lot of our time justifying it because he was our manager but he was a hypocrite who said one thing and did another.

4: Rejecting a lot of very good players because he just didn’t like them. It wasn’t football decisions, because any blind man could see Docherty was a player, or Jordan Jones was, or the big favourite in Katic – Gerrard just took dislikes to players and cast them out.

5: Never giving a chance to a single player he loaned out ‘for minutes’. Sorry, that was a complete fabrication. Once they left on loan they were finished under that manager. He even told those players the same lies, that they had a chance. No one ever did. The only players who ever went out on loan and didn’t find their Rangers careers finished were Stephen Kelly and Robby McCrorie.

6: Dumping Scots. Aside Ryan Jack and Allan McGregor, did anyone notice this manager really did NOT like Scottish players? We did bring a few in, but unless you were Jack or McGregor, you had no chance under Stevie. Even Arfield wasn’t treated terribly well, having to fight harder than most assets for his chance. And he’s sort of Canadian.

7: Passive at the side. He talked about the Rangers Way and passion, yet had very little himself. He never looked energetic, never seemed animated. Just stood or sat passively looking on. Not strictly a ‘fail’ but hardly a good message to players.

8: Signing some absolute rubbish. Hell, he didn’t even know what position Juninho Bacuna played. While many of his signings became mainstays, ‘In Stevie We Trust’ was stretched to breaking point with some of the rubbish that arrived. The loan factory he operated the first two seasons was abysmal and did we really sign Eros Grezda?

There’s hundreds more, and it’ll all come out over the next while.

We just can’t wait for someone like GVB to come in…