AHEAD of Sunday’s so-called title decider, Celtic’s opponents – the ones that Brendan Rodgers’ side has scored the most goals against – have been surrounded by rumours regarding their vacant managerial post.
Last night saw a red top deliver the somewhat surprising headline that Steven Gerrard was ‘in talks’ to become the next manager of the new Rangers.
The 37-year-old is currently the U18’s boss at Liverpool but bookies have suspended betting on him becoming the new Ibrox boss. It would be quite a sensational move for Gerrard, who’s spent less than a year in youth coaching since retiring.
Gerard visited Ibrox last month but that was to watch Celtic. He would have enjoyed Beautiful Sunday just like the rest of the Celtic support. But Dave King was at Anfield on Tuesday night and seemed to be enjoying his evening as Liverpool defeated Roma by 5-2 in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final.
If you just add Gerrard was at Ibrox recently with King being at Anfield you have the basis of your story. You could write that King wasn’t at Hampden a few weeks ago for the Scottish Cup semi-final thrashing by Celtic but that would be off message.
Andy Lynch, ex-Celtic Captain speaking at the launch of his book, ‘Hoops, Stars and Stripes’ in late 2016 recalled his memories of meeting Gerrard and this is what he said…
“The decisive factor could be that he is a real Celtic man. That took me by surprise when I met him at half-time during a Liverpool game at Stoke. I had travelled up from London with the club owners, Hicks and Gillett, to be guests of Liverpool. Gerrard wasn’t playing so at half-time he was introduced to me.
“It was him who brought up the subject of Celtic and you could see he was pretty excited talking about it. He said ‘that’s my team, that’s who I support.’
“Obviously, I’m sure he’s got a great love for Liverpool and I’m not saying Celtic would have been a greater love. But he was very adamant about his passion for Celtic and said whenever he gets opportunities he would come up and see them because that was his team when he was younger.
“Then he told me he has a Celtic strip framed at home and it has Lynch on the back of it.
“So I’m racking my brains thinking I have played in a few testimonials against Liverpool but it was before his time – and then it dawned on me.
“I said to him ‘that’s my son’s shirt’. When Simon was at Celtic he played in Ronnie Moran’s testimonial at Anfield. I don’t know where Simon’s put Gerrard’s shirt but the fact we know where that Celtic jersey is says a lot.”
As a player, Gerrard had an outstanding career. That night in Istanbul will be fondly remembered by football fans around the world. However, one day has defined Gerrard by social media trolls and that was the slip versus Chelsea, that resulted in Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool losing the league.
Could this be another case of PR before a big game to get the revolting Zombies behind the team and is merely part of the season ticket hard sell we see every year these days from the latest Ibrox club?
Or could the Celtic supporter really become the new manager at Ibrox?
Lewis Faulds
*Photos in this article are from the day when Neil Lennon’s Celtic defeated Liverpool – managed by Brendan Rodgers 1-0 in Dublin in a pre-season friendly.
