Steven Gerrard has today announced an unusual idea of hiring a loan manager for his talent plying their trades elsewhere.
Rangers have an unusually high amount of loan players out at the moment. The club have nine players in total away elsewhere until either January or the end of the season. The high-profile ones include the likes of Greg Docherty, Jason Holt, and Carlos Pena.
With so many players out of the club and looking to impress the manager, it appears that Gerrard has had a tough time doing just that. The Gers boss, therefore, has come up with what he feels is an ideal solution to the problem.
The Rangers manager confirmed in the Daily Record today that he wants a loan manager to come in. The role would include keeping tabs on those not at the club, but there wasn’t much else revealed about the new duties.
“We will have a discussion on loan players in the coming weeks, we are aware that Greg Docherty is shining down there, we sent someone to watch him recently.
“We are planning to appoint a loan manager to ensure we track our players as even when away they are Rangers players.”
How is it currently done?
Despite Gerrard’s claims that they want someone to keep tabs on his players, it’s still unclear as to what he means.
The official Rangers website contains constant “Loan Reviews” that shows that someone is checking up on the players. It appears, however, that there isn’t a strong satisfaction with the process currently in place.
Gerrard’s reveal that he had Greg Docherty watched shows that he still puts a real onus on those not at the club. It’s unclear whether similar scouts have been out to see the likes of Pena and Holt also.
Regardless, this is an unusual step to take, and it’s odd to create a full-time role for someone to see how the loan players are doing. The manager, however, clearly knows what he wants and the board are highly unlikely to deny him it.
For the likes of Docherty, this is also a god-send. He’s been performing out of his skin at Shrewsbury Town, and deserves to have that work more acknowledged. This new loan manager could give him the chance to constantly be in Gerrard’s ear.
It’ll be interesting to see how this all develops as time goes on.
