There’s been enough fallout from Sunday, but Daniel Candeias and Alfredo Morelos have been advised strongly by Steven Gerrard.
The Rangers manager wants to ensure that a repeat of them not shaking hands doesn’t happen again. The pair were accused yesterday by Livingston’s Lee Miller of failing to show sportsmanship after the game.
It certainly was a tad rich given the overzealous celebrations from Declan Gallagher in particular. He also recently explained his actions without apologising to the Rangers players or supporters.
Gerrard, however, has finally had his say on the matter. The Rangers manager wasn’t happy with Morelos or Candeias for their part in the scuffle, and told them to act with “class” in the future.
“You should shake hands whether you win, lose or draw. I shook hands with every single one of their players and their coaching staff. I didn’t enjoy it, but I showed my respects
“My players should do it, because we are Rangers and we are playing for a historic club that shows class. That’s who we are representing. So sometimes you have to bite your tongue or hold your emotions back and save it for when we are behind closed doors.
“I think you always have to be respectful to your fellow professionals and the challenge and the test. It was a good game. We were on the wrong side of it and we are all disappointed. But you still have to show a bit of class, I think.”
A class above
When Rangers don’t win football matches, we can’t keep seeing scenes like what we saw on Sunday. Granted, Gallagher had a huge part to play in it and really should’ve taken some responsibility for it.
Morelos and Candeias, however, showed a real immaturity to not shake hands post-match. You talk about strong characters at Rangers, and how the club needs leaders of men. That’s what this club has been built on in the past. Each and every one of them show sportsmanship after the match with a simple hand-shake.
In not doing so, you’re showing a severe lack of respect to the opponents.
None of us can pretend to know how the post-match scenes on Sunday started. Gerrard may not even know either. But it simply doesn’t matter as you have to shake hands to show you respect the opposition team’s efforts throughout the game.
Gerrard has had that kind of respect engrained into him at Liverpool. How many times do you think the Rangers manager felt sour after defeats? Like he said, on Sunday he was seen shaking the hands and patting every Livi player on the back. Nobody is expecting a kiss and a cuddle from the players at full-time, but not shaking hands brings a poor bit of criticism back to the club.
Rangers deserved to lose on Sunday, and there was nothing Livingston did that was wrong throughout the 90 minutes. In truth, there was simply no need to not show some post-match respect to the opposition.
That’s what real leaders would’ve done. That’s what the manager and the captain did. Morelos and Candeias should take note, because that kind of behaviour isn’t acceptable from Rangers stars.
