Steve Nicol believes that Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has taken the club to “another level” during his season in charge.
The Gers will end the season trophyless yet again as Celtic push on for a third consecutive treble, but Nicol still thinks that Gerrard has brought the side on leaps and bounds.
Speaking on ESPN FC, he said: “Since Gerrard ’s gone there he’s taken the ability of the playing staff to another level.
“Really, Rangers when Gerrard went there, nobody expected them to even compete with Celtic.
“Now they’re competing because they’ve made signings.”
OPINION
Gerrard has certainly made a huge strides towards closing that gap between Rangers and their city rivals. Nobody could realistically have expected the Gers to catch the Hoops after just the one season with Gerrard at the helm, but they pushed Celtic pretty hard for the first half of the campaign, and if it hadn’t been for a bit of a collapse in the aftermath of the winter break, who knows how close it could have been in the end. With a stronger squad and a bit more depth, you would fancy it to be even tighter next time around, but that is heavily reliant on how Celtic approach this next window. Obviously they have the funds, and if they deem Gerrard’s progress to be a real issue, they could quite easily go into the transfer market and blow everybody out of the water with two or three huge signings. That is the problem Gerrard faces, but he will feel that his side are on the right track to get things tied up at the top.