Rangers hunt for a new manager has gone quiet with fans distracted by Barry Ferguson’s tenure.
There is also the small matter of a takeover by the San Francisco 49ers to keep them occupied with the hopes of an announcement not far away.
Initial fears of Rangers becoming a feeder club have been eased by Paraag Marathe, the key figure in the deal with thoughts now turning to what could be a busy summer transfer window.
What the dramatic win over Fenerbahce proved, is that the Rangers squad does have good players, but the next manager has to be the type who can make the routine domestic fixtures, routine victories.
Which makes the emergence of Steven Gerrard as a name who the 49ers Enterprises are considering all the more surprising.
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Steven Gerrard on limitations as name gets linked to Rangers
Gerrard enjoyed a record-breaking title win, however, he also failed to win any of the cups and lost ties to St Mirren, Motherwell and Aberdeen – the same teams Philippe Clement struggled against.
There is one condition that the former Rangers manager should be considered, if the club constructs the coaching team around him.
This is a point that even Gerrard has accepted in the past when speaking about building his own staff, via the Robbie Fowler podcast:
“You’ve got to self-analyse, know what you’re good at, and know what you need around you to make a really good coaching team.
“What I’ll never do is try to do someone else’s job when they are better than me at doing it.
“For example, I’d worked on a coaching team behind the scenes when I was manager of the Liverpool U18 and U19 teams. People wouldn’t believe how closely I was watching people to take with me when the opportunity eventually came.
“I haven’t had the luxury of retiring early from the game or not being a player, in terms of having that pitch time to really become a coach for the past 20 years like a Brendan Rodgers, a [Jose] Mourinho or a Michael Beale.
“It would take me 15 to 20 years to become as good as Michael Beale as an on-pitch coach, delivering sessions on a daily basis, so I let Mick be Mick Beale because he’s the expert.”
Who should be Gerrard’s right hand man if he is appointed?
Issame Charai was brought into Rangers to add more coaching and technical expertise.
The system Ferguson chose to implement against Fenerbahce is one that Charai implemented with Morocco Under-23s and would have been responsible for leading the limited sessions on the training ground to perfect it.
The difference with Clement, is that the seemed to want to do everything himself, even though there was a clear inability to get his message across in terms of beating more defensive or negative teams.
If Gerrard is the number one target, Rangers already have his first-team coach and a set-piece/specialist coach should be next.
Rangers want to have a clear identity, changing the whole coaching staff every year isn’t how this is achieved.
