‘Blessed’ – Ryan Babel blown away by Rangers ‘inspiration’, claims Gers are lucky to have him
Ryan Babel has claimed that Rangers are “blessed” to have Steven Gerrard.
The Dutchman played alongside the Gers boss for Liverpool at Anfield, but will square up against him when he and his Galatasaray teammates travel to Glasgow on Thursday evening.
And the 33-year-old is unsurprised that his former colleague has made such a positive start to life in the dugout.
As quoted by the Scottish Sun, he said: “It’s special for me to go up against Steven.
“I was lucky enough to play alongside him in my time in Liverpool and now he’s a manager. He’s doing well and I’m happy for him but for me it’s not weird that he became one.
“If you understand football, you know the players working under him are blessed to have him. Very quickly at Liverpool I saw that Steven didn’t need to talk much on the pitch as a captain. His presence and him being on the pitch was enough inspiration and motivation for us to get it all.
“I definitely think that you know he can have a successful career as a manager. I think that’s meant for Steven. It’s clear what he wants to accomplish. He had a lot of determination as a player and you see that in his Rangers team.”
How good has Gerrard been at Rangers?
He may not have any silverware yet, but you can’t argue that Gerrard hasn’t done a good job for the Gers.
His points per game average is a very healthy 2.08, some 0.18 higher than that of his predecessor, Graeme Murty.
Perhaps most importantly, however, is the fact that we’re seeing constant progress at Ibrox.
An unbeaten start to this season feels like a brilliant boost going into this year’s title race, while last term’s run to the Europa League last 16 shows that the Gers are capable of mixing it with some of the best teams on the continent.
Hand on heart, we can’t think of anybody else we’d rather have in the dugout at Ibrox right.
In other news, Rangers ace proves he is exciting alternative to Gers regular in Sunday masterclass.