Steven Gerrard appointed Rangers manager on four-year deal

Brendan Rodgers has hailed Steven Gerrard’s arrival at Celtic’s arch-rivals Rangers but laid bare the demands on an Old Firm manager.

“It was a no-brainer for me”.

“I got a different feeling in my stomach from the previous opportunities I’d had in terms of being a number one manager”. Being Scottish he knows what the club is all about, he’s got that experience where maybe I’m a bit short where we stand right now. Always, when you have someone with this passion for football, with people around with more experience, they can do well. Pressure’s not a bad thing for me, I’ve always lived under it.

“I obviously spoke to my agent in great detail and I also knew quite a lot about the football club anyway”.

“Stability is the key and I want to give these supporters an exciting team and a winning team and one to be proud of”, he said.

“I wouldn’t want to put a Mane or a Salah over a Henderson or Milner or even a Trent Alexander-Arnold or Andrew Robertson because I think they all do a fantastic job for this team”.

Gerrard has stepped away from his duty as an academy coach at Liverpool; a role he has been fulfilling since the summer of 2017.

“I started at 35, I am 45 now and over 400 games later I am a much better manager I think than I was when I started”.

He will not spend hours on the training ground wishing for a bigger challenge or the chance to test himself, because managing Rangers will command his attention at all times. It is unlikely, and this might be the ramblings of a paranoid fan, but I see Sunday as an enormous match for Liverpool.

Chairman King said Gerrard “ticked every box” other than experience.

“It’s important for all English players – like Gerrard, (Frank) Lampard, (John) Terry, (Paul) Scholes, (Michael) Carrick – it’s so important they stay in football”.

“It doesn’t matter what Steven has achieved as a player, there is nothing that prepares you for management”.

Gerrard also announced that former Liverpool team-mate Gary McAllister will work alongside him at Gers. The same goes with BT and I have to respect a couple of commitments I have with them.