Steven Gerrard was confirmed as the new Rangers manager on Friday, proving recent speculation surrounding the move to be true.
The former Liverpool captain will officially start his first senior managerial role on June 1, due to coaching commitments for the Reds and scheduled punditry for BT Sport.
Gerrard who also captained England for two international tournaments and earned more than 100 caps for his country, retired from professional Football in November 2016 after almost two decades at Anfield and an 18-month spell with MLS franchise LA Galaxy.
He will go up against his former-boss Brendan Rodgers, who manages Old Firm rivals Celtic, but only if he doesn't replace Arsene Wenger at Arsenal in the summer.
Gerrard’s Liverpool exit in 2015 was surrounded by rumours of a rift between the two, but the Whiston native insists that there is no bad blood between them.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, he said: “I haven’t spoken to him recently, but me and Brendan are fine, we always have been fine. I am looking forward to the challenge.
“When the call came from Liverpool with the opportunity to speak to Rangers, it was a no-brainer for me.
“I got a different feeling in my stomach compared to the previous opportunities I’d had in terms of being a No.
1 manager. From that phone call, I got a special feeling and I knew that Rangers was for me.”
He’s spent his time since his retirement learning his new trade
Upon his retirement, Gerrard was linked with several high-profile jobs including at Celtic and Premier League-side Newcastle and attended a job interview at League One MK Dons.
However, he decided that it was too early to make that transition so quickly – telling BT Sport that the opportunity came “a bit too soon.”
Instead, he joined his beloved Liverpool the following February to coach at the academy in Kirkby, becoming manager of the U18s team and learning under the tutelage of first-team boss Jurgen Klopp, who has led his side to the Champions League final in Kiev later this month.
This has allowed Gerrard to gain management experience and work closely alongside one of the top bosses in the world, and he clearly feels that he has learned enough to be ready to take on the challenging role at Ibrox.
He may think he’s ready, but is he?
It’s tough to say if Gerrard has learnt enough in his 15-month test run at Liverpool to make a success of the task he faces at Rangers.
Managing a youth team and studying from Klopp is all very well, but he still lacks the crucial experience of being a first-team boss.
Being a household name isn’t enough – Clarence Seedorf and Filippo Inzaghi both took-on their first senior jobs at their former-club Milan but were both dismissed after four months and a year respectively after poor results.
More recently, Gary Neville infamously took-over at Valencia in December 2015, but a nine-game winless streak and THAT 7-0 drubbing at the hands of Barcelona meant that he didn’t even make it to the end of the season.
That said, everyone has to start off somewhere, but they must pick the right opportunity.
Given that he turned-down earlier opportunities to bide his time and learn the trade, Gerrard deserves the benefit of the doubt – he has clearly been biding his time for the right opportunity to come along.
His eventual chosen destination, Rangers, have had a tough time in recent years
Following their relegation to Scotland’s fourth tier amid financial difficulties, the club has battled hard to get themselves back into the top flight, returning to the SPFL for the 2016/17 season.
After two seasons and three managers since their promotion, however, The Gers have failed to break cross-town rivals Celtic’s stranglehold on the league – The Hoops won their seventh-successive Scottish League title with a convincing 5-0 win in the Old-Firm Derby.
The rivalry between the two main Glasgow clubs is ferocious and managing one of the teams is not for the faint-hearted.
In a way few managers are more prepared for this than Gerrard – he is a veteran of dozens of Merseyside Derbies, and if he can bring the passion with which he played every match for Liverpool with him to Ibrox and combine it with the tactical nous he has gained in his coaching career so far, then he has every chance of making a success of his first major appointment.
History, however, is not on his side.
Research from the League Managers Association says that more than two-thirds of bosses are not given a second-chance after failing in their first senior appointment, meaning that Gerrard must impress in Scotland if he wants to make it in management.
His managerial career begins next season and if he performs well, then not only will he buck that particular trend, but he could be one-step closer to a seemingly inevitable glorious return to Liverpool as manager one day in the future.
