Surprise reports this week have linked Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard to the managerial post with Rangers. Gerrard retired from football after spending a little over a season with LA Galaxy of MLS, and he has since been installed as the head coach for Liverpool’s U18s. The UK media has reported that Gerrard is the frontrunner to join Rangers and that the job is his if he wants to take it.
If Gerrard does make the switch to Scotland, might he bring some players from Liverpool with him? Gerrard would surely use his contacts with Liverpool to his advantage to bring some talent with him from England. One player that would make sense on several levels is striker Danny Ings.
You can bet on almost anything nowadays, including transfer rumours. Some sites list Ings with odds as favourable as 3-1 that he will be with a new club at the close of the next transfer window. If you’ve learned how to bet online and read odds, you’ll know that the bookmakers think his time with Liverpool is nearing an end.
Ings was purchased by Liverpool after a successful Premier League campaign with Burnley in the summer of 2015. He enjoyed a successful beginning to life at Anfield before a seemingly endless rash of injuries kept him sidelined for quite a while. Ings recently returned to full-time action and scored his first goal in three years two weeks ago against West Brom.
Ings has not been regularly featured in Jurgen Klopp’s side, so it makes sense for the Englishman to move on to greener pastures in the summer. Still only 25, Ings is fully capable of being a contributing regular squad player when fit. Ings would provide an instant upgrade over Rangers’ current options in front of goal, to be sure.
Ings would likely be battling with Alfredo Morelos for the job as the team’s first-choice striker if Gerrard were to take the head coaching gig.
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43-year-old Graeme Murty has been the head man at Rangers since October, and there are a few other candidates on the club’s wish list. If Gerrard were to take the job, he would join his former coach at Liverpool, Brendan Rodgers, in Glasgow. Rodgers is on the verge of leading Celtic to their second straight domestic treble.
Klopp said Friday that Liverpool would continue to support Gerrard wherever he goes as long as it isn’t one of their fiercest rivals. Klopp said, “Whatever he wants to do we will support him in that. There is no decision. I can imagine clubs are interested in signing Stevie, he has massive experience as a player, so I would think about him signing for a club. We will support him in all directions.”
Murty was the interim manager with Rangers before Pedro Caixnha’s brief spell in charge. Murty was again appointed after Cainxnha’s exit, and he was given the job for the rest of the season last December.
Murty, a former defender at Reading and with the Scottish national team, said Friday, “There is always going to be speculation regarding this fantastic job”.
Gerrard, 37, concluded his playing career in 2016.