STEVEN Gerrard last night insisted he can still be a success as Rangers manager – but admitted that he needs to win a trophy by next season to avoid the sack.
Gerrard’s hopes of lifting silverware in the 2018/19 campaign suffered a serious blow on Tuesday evening when his side were beaten 2-0 at home by Aberdeen in the William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final replay.
The Glasgow club, who take on Kilmarnock at Ibrox in the Ladbrokes Premiership this afternoon, are eight points behind their city rivals Celtic in the top flight table with nine games remaining.
The Liverpool and England great, who was appointed last May, stressed he is still confident he can turn Rangers into a side who are capable of challenging for major honours if he is given time.
However, he is well aware of the demands that are on him to succeed and knows the consequences if he fails to win the Betfred Cup, Ladbrokes Premiership and William Hill Scottish Cup.
“I will make it my business to make this team better to compete better and to keep closing in (on Celtic),” he said. “I can guarantee that will happen. If it doesn’t then I understand the situation.
“Sitting here right now I have confidence I can take this team forward and make it a winning team.
“Of course, there has to be an element of patience. Everyone who is educated about the game knows that Rome wasn’t built in a day and knows the size of the job I took over.
“But we need to win now. We are at a club that demands we need to win now. I’d be very naive to say this is a project and say that I need two years, three years, four years.
“We need to compete for what’s available now. We have nine games to finish the season as strong as we can and to push and that’s the short-term plan.
“Then my job is to make us compete for the next trophies that are available. I’m here to win what’s next available. I don’t want to be part of a project. The players need to understand that and the message to the fans is that’s my thinking.
“But if I don’t win the next three or four things that are available maybe I won’t be sitting here. I’m aware of that.”
Gerrard added: "We need to win yesterday. I’m at a club that demands you need to win now. I’d be very naive to say this is a project and I need two years, three years, four years. We need to compete for what’s available now.
"We’ve got nine games left now to push and finish the season and see if something happens. That’s the short-term plan.
"And then my job is to improve things and make us better to try and compete for the next thing that’s available.
"I’m here to win the next thing that’s available. I don’t want to be part of a project. I want to win what’s next. The players need to understand that. My message to the fans is that’s my thinking.
"If I don’t win the next three or four things that are available maybe I won’t be here speaking to you. I’m aware of that. I want to win the next thing. That’s my mentality. The next thing."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel