THE GERRARD EFFECT

 

It's the 25th April 2018, I've just started my shift at work and my boss, a Sunderland fan, says to me "Steven Gerrard eh?".

"No chance. People are just linking him with the job because Dave King was at the Liverpool game. People forget Dave King likes Liverpool though. There's no way we go for someone untested!" I reply, perhaps a little too quickly.

Fast forward to May 4th and it's confirmed Steven Gerrard will be the 18th Manager of Rangers F.C (I'm only including permanent managers here, not double counting Jock Wallace and Sir Walter, and including Stuart McCall & Graeme Murty as both will tell you their contract said Manager, not caretaker Manager).

 To say I'm not exactly sold on the appointment at first is an understatement. I was very aware of how great a player he was. How could you not be, the man was absolute world class, and if not for him Liverpool would never have attracted some of the stars like Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez that helped keep them relevant in the 00's and 10's. However we were so far behind our rivals, and had suffered through so many experiments like Pedro Caxinha and Graeme Murty that I felt we needed an established, proven manager to take us forward. To help bridge the gap. To stop the 10. Then I heard him speak... That soundbite "Let's Go". I was sold. I knew he got it. He knew my club was hurting and that it was time to stop the rot. He knew we needed to win, and he knew how to win. I was excited.

Fast forward again, this time to 29th February 2020. After nearly 2 seasons in charge we still have not won a trophy, we're trailing in the league after a monumental post-Dubai collapse and we've just been knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Hearts. Gerrard has just given an interview that sounds very much like a man questioning his next steps. This all sounds doom and gloom, but we've also qualified for the Europa League group stages twice despite starting in the first qualifying round. This year we're still in it at this point. We've been an offside goal away from winning the League Cup in a game we've dominated. We've been in the position to have a post-Dubai collapse and we've beat our rivals in their own backyard... 2 years ago we were nowhere near this level. The team Gerrard took over had been pumped out of the Europa League qualifiers by the 4th best team in Luxembourg and have been beaten 5-0 and 5-1 by our rivals. Only a few years prior to that we're collecting balls out of a hedge. Now we've just put Braga out of the last 32 of the Europa League and getting ready to face Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16. The progress is there for all to see, even if those of the green persuasion try to deny it and play it down, and I for one do not want Gerrard to leave. My group chats are full of discussion about him quitting and we all agree we want him to stay.  

Fortunately Gerrard didn't make any rash decisions, and despite a home defeat to Hamilton in the next game we went on to beat Ross County in the league and then face Bayer Leverkusen in what would turn out to be the last game of the 2019/20 season thanks to COVID-19. We lost that game 3-1, but I don't go home deflated from the defeat. I went home from Ibrox pumped that we a) had held our own for periods against an outstanding opposition that years earlier we could only dream of facing again and b) excited for the future of the club. Unfortunately that was all put on hold as the league was suspended and titles were handed out via zoom calls and junk box filters.

I'm not going to go into the details over the lockdown period, that may be for a blog further down the line, but it was the most explosive pre-season I've known.

Fast forward once again to this season. Our rivals are chasing that "Holy Grail" of 10* (9.81) in a row. It's all they have talked about since February 14th 2012. They've sung about it in friendlies, as witnessed in Netflix documentary Sunderland Till I Die. They've sung about it on European trips. They've sung about it everywhere. Their cheerleaders in the media wrote about it. They made videos of their kids singing about it. Failed politicians and trialists told us it was a formality. Meanwhile Gerrard, Ross Wilson and the back team of Gary McAllister, Michael Beale, Tom Culshaw and many others (who don't get the credit they deserve) quietly went about their business. Hagi was signed on a permanent while Bassey, Balogun, McLaughlin, Itten, Zungu & Roofe were brought in to create competition for every spot in the team.

Both teams started off well enough, though there were grumbles in our support following a 0-0 draw away to Livingston and a 2-2 away to Hibs. "Same old story" and "we've seen this movie before" were said by many, including myself, but such is the life of a Rangers fan. We demand the best every game, we won't just accept mediocrity. However that demand is balanced also, we won't riot in the middle of pandemic, attacking both police and the team bus, because of some bad results. 

While those early draws may have gave us a bit of a fright the first meeting with our rivals in October showed us there was nothing to worry about. Gerrard and Co. put together a master plan for the game that saw us come out 2-0 winners and without allowing a single shot on target in their own midden. The rightful order had finally been restored. It was clear to me then that the wait had all been worth it. Fifty Five was on it's way and we would once again take our rightful place as the Champions of Scotland, although I dare not say it out loud until lately for that irrational fear we all have that we will somehow cause the universe to punish hundreds of thousands of people just because we showed a bit of hubris.

That's not to say it's been all plain sailing since that result. Losing to St Mirren in the League Cup when it looked all but certain that would be our trophy was a particular low, and lately the 1-1 draw away to Hamilton dropping points away to Hamilton for the first time since 1954. However if you'd said to me at the start of the season you can be 15 points clear of your rivals, have a game in hand, be unbeaten in the league and Europe going into the last 16 of the Europa league all while only conceding 9 goals in the league but you'll need to accept losing to St Mirren in the cup and a draw away to Hamilton I'd have snapped your hand off for it. Added with the fact we could win the league in their midden and really crush them.

Gerrard has given us our club back. Him and his team have put us back where we belong and help us singlehandedly bring the Scottish coefficient back to a respectable level after our rivals and other teams in the league saw it hit rock bottom. Next year the Champions League music will hopefully be blaring round Ibrox and I hope us fans will be allowed back in by then, but even if we're not, we owe a massive thanks to Gerrard and his backroom team, as well as the board for showing the patience to stick with them and back them, for bringing it back.

I'll say it again. Gerrard has give us our club back. If he does end up leaving for Liverpool in the summer because Klopp has taken on the Germany job as the media are speculating just now I will be gutted, really gutted. However he will leave with my thanks and will be considered a legend of the club by me. A term thrown out perhaps too quickly these days, but in my eyes appropriately here.

Although I don't think his time at Ibrox is up quite yet. I see a couple of more titles in his future first.

The Rambling Ger