Steven Gerrard is set to snub a second attempt to lure him back to Ibrox.
The Liverpool legend walked out on the 2012 Tribute Act in October 2021 to trigger a hilarious chain of events that has seen Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Micky Beale, Phil Clement, Barry Ferguson and Russell Martin fail to halt Celtic’s run of success.
No group of fans like to turn the clock back more than the Gullible & Deluded with Ally McCoist and Stuart McCall previously being in charge during 13 years of almost constant failure.
Gerrard bucked the trend during the freakish COVID season, delivering an unexpected title that owed more to the failings of Peter Lawwell and Neil Lennon that anything conjured up inside Ibrox.
Despite flopping badly at Aston Villa and Al Ettifaq Gerrard remains a hero to Ibrox fans that believe he can recreate the 20/21 season using the duds accumulated by the four managers that have followed him- none of whom have lasted a full season.
Since getting sacked by Al Ettifaq in January Gerrard has stayed on in Bahrain, enjoying the good life in the sun while turmoil rages on at Ibrox.
Although the club is well used to autumn changes in manager the current situation is more complex than usual.
Normally the new manager inherits a team in second place, the next victim will take over a squad sitting in eighth place despite a £20m net spend in the summer transfer window.
Added to that the pictures of the Union Bears blocking buses and chasing cars protected by Police horses won’t have gone un-noticed, making a three year contract at Ibrox even less appealing than usual.
Gerrard was detested as a traitor when he left for Aston Villa four years ago but is now the overwhelming choice of fans to take over from Martin.
Daily Record transfer expert Scott Burns has good connections across the agency business, tonight he began the task of bracing angry bears for further disappointment.
Gerrard was approached by Andrew Cavenagh and his board during the last process, which ended with Martin’s short-lived appointment in the summer.
The 45-year-old at that point had indicated he wasn’t ready to return to management – as exclusively revealed by Record Sport back in May.
Gerrard had just become a granddad and was looking to take a break and recharge the batteries and spend time with his family after leaving Al-Ettifaq in January.
The Liverpool legend is still in no rush to get back and would only return for the right job.
He has knocked back a number of approaches from clubs in recent months.
Another major issue for Gerrard is the strength of the current Rangers squad.
Sources close to him have confirmed that he has negatives around the strength of the player pool.
Sporting director Kevin Thelwell was responsible for a massive overhaul of the playing squad but the majority of those signings have still to make a significant impact.
That is a major issue, especially as the window is shut and they can’t make any more additions until January.
With Gerrard sending out the signals that again the timing is wrong things could start to get very desperate at Ibrox.
There is a very short list of out of work managers prepared to work under Thelwell who is about to bring in his 26-year-old son Robbie to head up recruitment. With the reputation of the Ibrox supporters only the utterly desperate are likely to be showing interest in what is likely to be a short term appointment.
With the home match against Dundee United just 12 days away there is some urgency to get players trained and prepared to help them escape from the mini-Pep style of Martin.
With the treatment of Clement and the judgement of Kev Thelwell and Paddy Stewart called into question the club might have no alternative to turn to last season’s interim team to make a rapid return.
Barry Ferguson has said that he will only return on a permanent basis which leaves the door open for Neil McCann to take the job on an interim basis while getting his media pals to lobby for him to get the job on a permanent basis.
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