In the aftermath of their second cup exit of the season, some within the Ibrox klanbase are starting to question Mr Gerrard’s credentials as a manager.
It is one of those rare moments when the customers of Sevco start to resemble football supporters.
Usually, they are more concerned with wading in Fenian blood and laughing about An Gorta Mór.
When he was appointed last summer even some of the Stenography Corps were briefly brave enough to point out to an inconvenient truth:
Mr Gerrard was a rookie manager.
Indeed, readers here were told that while he was the U18 coach at Liverpool there had been an attempt to counsel him out of the idea of management.
To that end, he had been offered the role of Global Ambassador for the Anfield club.
Despite that advice , Mr Gerrard decided that football management was for him.
His appointment was a brilliant coup for Dave King and it was announced between two matches against Celtic.
At that time, it was clear that the Parkhead side was utterly dominant and even the klan knew that.
This was not conducive to their misplaced sense of cultural supremacism.
Consequently, it was clear that The People were revolting.
At the same time, there were tetchy exchanges within the Sevco High Command about the worrying signs apropos season ticket renewals.
Mr King brushed these concerns away and said that he would handle it.
It was one of those rare occasions that the man with 41 criminal convictions was telling the truth.
From the moment that Mr Gerrard was announced any thoughts of a dip in season ticket sales vanished.
The South African based convicted criminal also hoped that his new manager would gain Sevco access to the best of the Liverpool academy on loan and entice some foreign soft investment.
In one sense his appointment by the King regime at Ibrox was follow following a recent pattern.
Since the Off Licence Putsch of 2015, Sevco had hired managers for, at least in part, non-footballing reasons.
It was hoped that the Admirable Warburton would bring with him his Square Mile contacts.
In the initial weeks after he had been appointed much was made of his pre-Brentford career as an “ex-City trader”.
Then Poor Pedro was plucked from the obscurity of Al-Gharafa SC in Qatar.
During the extensive interview (ok, ok, it was a chat on Skype) the recruitment panel from Sevco had speculated that the likeable Portuguese spoofer would know lots of rich folk in the oil-producing region.
His abilities as a football manager were clearly secondary in the Churchillian deliberations and he was hired.
When King made his move for Mr Gerrard he knew that he was signing a brand and not a football manager.
Ironically, the Englishman has done better than the previous two permanent managers.
When it came to Sevco’s inaugural campaign in Europe Poor Pedro only met with little Progrès.
The Admirable Warburton did manage a famous victory at Hampden over Celtic in the cup semi-final in April 2016.
Neither of the King management appointees were able to defeat Celtic in a league match, but Mr Gerrard managed that last December.
The European run and the victory on the last fixture of 2018 certainly gave the ex-Liverpool player some breathing space.
However, at the end, his utility function for King was last summer and that was, in the first instance, to sell season tickets.
The presser could not have gone any better.
Of course, the Stenography Corps were on their very best behaviour.
Only gushing soft ball questions were asked.
The takeaway from this crime against journalistic scrutiny was “let’s go”.
It was difficult to discern who was more excited about the appointment, the klan or the Stenography Corps.
Everything was going to be wonderful.
Now, a little reality has intervened.
If Celtic, currently under the temporary control of Neil Francis Lennon, can win their next two league matches then it is fair to say that Sevco’s season is very much over.
Should Kilmarnock get another result against the basket of assets this weekend then it is all done before Patrick’s Day.
Of course, the Stenography Corps will do their high-Level best to keep the Ibrox klanbase interested in the rest of the campaign.
In all of this, the utility function of Mr Gerrard should not be forgotten.
It was all about last summer.
In many ways, between those two defeats by Celtic, the announcement of their new permanent manager was classic King.
Now reality is encroaching on the fantasy.
It is now well established that post-2012 reality is not something that is pleasing to the Ibrox klanbase.
If this season gets any worse for Sevco then a very decent guy at the basket of assets could find himself chewing on his zip a bit harder in the coming months.
However, Mr Gerrard’s personal terms make him close to unsackable for financial reasons.
Consequently, he would have To Do Walking Away.
That scenario would probably only come to pass if the Stenography Corps were given the light blue light to go after him.
It is worth remembering that the ex-England captain has almost unfettered access to London TV studios.
The Sevco High Command were able to dispatch the Admirable Warburton and Poor Pedro without too much reputational collateral damage to the Ibrox brand.
For the avoidance of doubt, Mr Gerrard is not in that category and he would almost certainly state his case publicly.
I know of at least one simmering row between the Sevco manager and a well-established member of the Ibrox backroom staff.
Moreover, it has little to do with Mr Gerrard’s preferred formation or his tactical approach to the game.
This could get messy.
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Hi Phil. Your “wading in fenian blood” comment actually made me chuckle. I’m seldom lost for words, but, when I read that Police Scotland were investigating sectarian singing at the bigot-dome, by ABERDEEN FANS, I was gob-smacked.
If you draw a logical line here from Kris Boyd to SG it seems to be completely UNACCEPTABLE – well it is actually – to call someone an “orange bastart”, but but perfectly ACCEPTABLE, to sing about wading up to your knees in fenian blood.
Talk about double standards!! It’s complete fuckin HYPOCRISY. It’s right up there with Artur Boric blessing himself in front of one of the stands in the same cesspit and the same police threatening to charge him with “Spreading fear and alarm”.
Can you imagine the utter terror which would have been caused had he spinkled holy water towards them. Or, God forbid, DEODORANT!!
Mr Gerrard took good advice from an old mentor as the former contemplated a managerial career.
“Get the worst of the shit stuff out of the way in your early days and build from there!”
Is he now their longest serving manager since joining the top flight?
I see those other boys in blue are investigating an allegation of sectarian abuse directed at old slippy by those pesky few Dons who had tickets for the game. I’m amazed and astounded at the hearing capabilty of those who could make out the Dons from the 200,000 loyal follow, followers they undoubtedly had at the game!
How long into next season will it take Slippy to do walking away? Sevco can’t afford to dump him but can they still afford to finance yet another gamble in the transfer market as the rookie manager seems to want to “buy” his way to the top at every window knowing that he’s never got it right yet? We thought this was a last throw of the dice season but if funds aren’t made available for SevvyG again in the summer then he might just be a goner. HH
It was indeed very striking how little attention was paid by the stenographers to Mr Gerrard’s previous managerial experience. Given that there was only one season of it, we might have thought it wouldn’t tax their research abilities too much. Especially since it’s readily available on Transfermarkt to all browsers.
But to save the valuable time of any hard-working Scottish journos paying their regular visits to Phil’s blog, I can exclusively reveal that he took one of the best youth setups in Europe downhill so quickly – from a title-challenging start – that by the end of his tenure they had lost seven of their last eleven competitive fixtures. At which point it was
politely suggested to him that a club legend like himself might better be suited to the more Iconic ambassadorial role mentioned by Phil above.
The Rangers’ newfound status as an ex-competitor in the Scottish Cup means they are already into their last eleven competitive fixtures of the season. So far they have drawn one and lost one. Of the remaining nine, eight will be against Top-6 opposition, against whom they have so far struggled.
Let’s see if the slippery Mr G can outdo his previous best…
Hasn’t Slippard had more cash and budget than than Pedro and The Hat? I could see Aberdeen mounting a late push for third but the likes of Dallas, Muir, Madden, Beaton will no doubt see The Assets FC over that line.
Oh yes!,yes please,let it get extremely messy.Fan is on and waiting for the soon to be arriving excrement,let the shitshow begin.
As ever,thanks Phil,We would only get this here,nowhere else has the bravado.Well,in Scotland anyway.I hope that there is all sorts of cafuffle when sg goes and then the english press may start to forensically scrutinise the bigotdome;maybe then We can see some exposure of their dodgy dealings and ‘special’ relationship they have with sfa,Level-5 PR and the LRA.
Why Phil, someone could mistake the above for a suggestion that Mr Gerrard may not be viewed “suitable”, or staunch enough, for some of the back room staff. Wonder what could be an underlying issue……
Your board has made two consectutive disastrous managerial appointments.
You would think that the next neck on the block would be a wiry, experienced manager who had done the rounds.
There is no way the board would go for a rookie manager with no previous management experience, that would be sheer madness…….oh wait!