Steven Gerrard claims he is ‘hungry’ to continue Rangers work
Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has claimed that he is “hungry” to continue his work at Ibrox.
The Gers boss has failed to win any silverware during his first two years at the club, and currently finds his side 13 points behind Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
Those shortcomings have left some figures in the Scottish game – including Kris Boyd and The Sun journalist Alan Nixon – questioning whether the ex-Liverpool man still has the desire to carry on his work in Glasgow next term.
But Gerrard has made it clear that he is happy continue in his current role for the time being.
Speaking to Jim White on talkSPORT (May 6th, 12.30pm), he said: “Look, I will continue to work as hard as I can to get better from a personal point of view, to keep trying to improve the players that we’ve got, to keep trying to strengthen the team.
“I think we’ve come so so close to having some success. I think we have from a European point of view if you consider where we were when I came into the job. The League Cup final, we played extremely well but Celtic are a good team.
“They’re a difficult club to catch, but we’ve definitely closed the gap, we’re definitely improving, and the pursuit carries on. I will do my role to the best of my ability and make that as quick as possible.
“We’re two years in and I’m hungry to continue doing it.”
Is this good news for Rangers?
Absolutely, yes.
While this is may be one step beneath a concrete declaration of Gerrard’s intention to stay on for next season, it is perhaps the clearest indication we have had in quite some time as to where his future lies.
Certainly, it directly contrasts the rhetoric we’ve heard from the likes of Boyd and Nixon, both of whom have questioned whether Gerrard has the hunger to stick around for another season at Ibrox.
And the boss is right when he says we’re improving too.
Maybe it’s not at the meteoric rate that some observers would like to see, but there are definitely signs of progression.
This term, for example, we have seen our points per game jump from 2.00 to 2.34, gathering 67 points from 29 matches.
It took Gerrard 33 matches to reach 66 points last term.
On another day, we might have won that League Cup final against Celtic earlier this season, and reaching the last 16 of the Europa League is an achievement whichever way you look at it.
Here’s hoping we can keep that growth going next season, and finally close the gap on Celtic for good.
In other Rangers news, UEFA consider drastic rescheduling plan that could affect Gers until 2023.