Steven Gerrard arrived last summer with the task of trying to fix a team badly broken by a season of damaging set backs. He inherited a squad that needed gutting and a club that was badly needing direction. A mammoth turnaround of players was needed and all on a budget of £8m, not a lot when you needed a turnaround of around thirty plus players and only weeks before his first European fixture
When Gerrard arrived at the club, on his very first day he went round every individual at the club and embraced them, ‘we are in it together’ was his message. Whilst we don’t need to highlight every result or sequence of games, it is very obvious to most he has took the team on several levels in comparison to where we were last season
He has made mistakes, failures in the cup competitions have marred a season which has undoubtedly brought significant progress to the team on the pitch. Progress in Europe and progress as a team has been clear to everyone, everyone who isn’t a media loudmouth and desperate for attention. If you are looking at the season and the only barometer is trophies, then yes he has failed
But that is an simplistic view and one completely ignorant to the circumstances we found ourselves in just a year ago
Just a few weeks ago Chris Sutton told everyone live on BT sport that Steven Gerrard was ‘morphing into Pedro Caixinha’ and anyone that says Rangers have Improved was ‘having a laugh’
Now we know that Sutton likes to talk about Rangers non stop, it’s natural as we live in his head rent free. When he has spoken this year he has chosen only to highlight his complete lack of common sense and instead show that having integrity as a ‘pundit’ means very little, he craves only attention, shouting loudly and rudely over others.
So Rangers have not Improved?
Last year Rangers were beaten an aggregate of 14-2 in Old Firm matches. We ended the league with 70 points, lost 10 games, won only 21 games, conceding 50 goals and scoring 76. We ended the season 12 pts behind
With a game to go this year in the league the old firm aggregate is 4-3 in favour of us, we have 78 pts, lost 5 games, won 23 games, conceded just 25 and scored 81, we are currently 6 pts behind.
Before we hear that this is a poor opposition side, they have more points than last season already
So Rangers haven’t Improved?
Usual hyperbole and nonsense from a guy only interested in hearing the sound of his own voice
His first reaction yesterday was to immediately talk about Rangers on twitter at FT and try to mock us. Anything to deflect away from the simple fact that the nonsense he has spouted before is exactly that and to deflect away from just how bad his wee pal is doing in that job
Let’s be clear, Rangers haven’t done anything yet, we haven’t won anything and we have underperformed in stages, but the reality of the situation is a lot more complex than shouting loudly on live TV
Steven Gerrard as a ‘rookie’ manager has taken Rangers forward, it’s an undeniable fact. To say we haven’t improved is a nonsense. The job he inherited last summer was massive and more than just a one season fix
Every Rangers fan realised just how big a job there was for Steven Gerrard. On this blog I have continued to reinforce my belief that this is a job that would take several transfer windows and more than one season to complete
Sky Sports very own Kris Commons told us it would take £100m to close the gap on Celtic, in fact he said £100m just to catch Celtic
In reality that 11 that started yesterday cost just over £5m and the man that tore ‘£25m’ man Callum McGregor to bits a mere £50k from Dundee. One player cost almost twice our whole teams outlay and I barely remember him getting a touch.
Steven Gerrard net spend this season has been a little more than £6m. Our financial output is still a third of what our rivals spend and they can easily up the stakes when they wish. They are champions and we can’t deny the fact that they are on the verge of another treble.
That has been our failure and it would be ignorant not to acknowledge that, but when we look at it you have to look at it as an objective whole rather than just that.
The challenge now is to take the consistency we have laterally found and turn it into a season progression. The challenge and objective now is to return the club back to where we belong. That season, that first step, the bridge to cut the gap has all been completed
Rangers are playing a brand of football which is easy on the eye, passing and moving slickly is key to our play. We are organised and have made significant strides as a team. Watching the team is once again exciting. We even stuck a midfielder in goals for ten mins last week and the opposition couldn’t even get a shot on goal
We now have players of quality and we have targets of significant quality who will only make us stronger still.
That progress will go up a level again this summer and the board will back the manager in the transfer market
It is a simplistic view to say just because Rangers haven’t won anything, we haven’t improved.
Anyone with half a brain can recognise that, but that’s obviously the problem here with those mentioned
Well done to the team and management on recent form, finish strong next week and we head into the summer ready to build further
Ignore the nonsense, the irrelevant and the noise
🔴⚪️🔵
Four Lads Had A Dream 