Steven Gerrard will be axed at Rangers if the club’s signings do not improve, according to a reliable journalist.
BBC Sports Scotland writer Tom English ripped into the 20 signings brought to Ibrox since the Liverpool icon was appointed manager in May of last year.
Speaking on BBC’s Sportsound programme (10:20) on Monday night, the journalist raised the prospect of the Rangers board sacking the Liverpool icon if the recruitment does not improve.
“I don’t think for a second they will dispense with him, he’s doing okay in difficult circumstances,” English said. “But his signings have largely been poor and, if he keeps making poor signings, it’s going to be curtains for him.”
OPINION
Everything seemed so rosy at Rangers back in January, when the club’s latest recruitment drive brought proven performers Jermaine Defoe and Steven Davis to the club, and many pundits were hailing them as the new title favourites. But the warm afterglow of those signings, and the end-of-year Old Firm triumph has vanished, and suddenly serious questions are being asked about the recruitment structure, Gerrard, Mark Allen, and the players brought in. While modern-day signings are muddied by multiple factors, and it is often difficult to pinpoint who exactly is responsible, and to what degree, for each one, managers ultimately succeed or fail based on who comes in and how they perform. Of the 17 players signed in the Gerrard era and given game time, at least half can be said to have flopped, the jury is out on plenty more, and probably only four can be deemed outright successes – Ryan Kent, Connor Goldson, Allan McGregor and Scott Arfield. That is a poor conversion rate and it needs to massively improve this summer.