Friday 1 June 2018 11:50, UK
Steven Gerrard will face a number of challenges after being confirmed as the new Rangers manager and the former Liverpool midfielder may not get much time to turn things around in Glasgow, says Sky Sports' Scottish football reporter Charles Paterson.
June 1 is Gerrard's first day in his first job in senior management, but the pressure won't be away from the 38-year-old for long as Rangers look to head back to the summit of Scottish football.
He has been working as a Liverpool academy coach since April last year, but with the spotlight firmly on him at Ibrox, what will he have to prioritise at the club?
"Rangers appear from the outside to have extensive internal issues, not to mention problems on the field," Paterson says. "At times the club gives the impression that it is dysfunctional.
"The director of football [Mark Allen] has been largely conspicuous by his absence, recent recruitment has been questionable and from a financial perspective, they've been largely operating on money from soft loans since the current board came in.
"There is a plan in place for another share issue to raise cash, but that's a complicated issue in itself. Gerrard is coming into a club that's crying out for stability."
Incomings and outgoings appears to be a challenge Gerrard is already wrestling with - having confirmed Allan McGregor and Scott Arfield as new signings for next season, as well as sanctioning a move for Brighton defender Connor Goldson.
Still, on the actual field of play, Gerrard will have an even bigger obstacle to contend with in the form of Celtic, who sealed a seventh straight title by thrashing Rangers 5-0 at Parkhead last month.
"Success for Gerrard at Rangers is beating Celtic," says Paterson. "The league is the ultimate, especially after Celtic's seven titles in a row. If Celtic were to win 10 in a row, and eclipse Rangers' nine successive titles, that would be too much for many Rangers supporters to bear.
It can be a PR disaster if you lose a game at the Old Firm. There will be little patience for him if Rangers are 15 points behind Celtic next season.
"Celtic under Brendan Rodgers have proved to be almost unbeatable on their way to seven titles in succession, so at the moment it is very difficult to see how any club can stop them winning the league.
"Rangers, with their fan base and pulling power, are the only team who can realistically create the financial wherewithal to challenge Celtic, but they have misused their potential position of strength in the last few years."
Gerrard will need to hit the ground running in Glasgow, but there is no guarantee that the man who has only been a coach at Liverpool's academy since January 2017 will be a success at Ibrox.
"Gerrard had a magnificent reputation as a player; he has no track record as a manager," says Paterson. "John Barnes came to Celtic as an England and Liverpool great - with Kenny Dalglish, one of the greatest players to ever play for the club - and he was sacked within six months.
"It's generally accepted that you do need some experience to manage one of the Old Firm clubs. Rodgers had some when he first arrived here, while he also understood the Old Firm, being a Celtic fan.
"Neil Lennon was a rookie manager when he took over at Celtic, like Gerrard is now, but then he had played for Celtic and lived in Glasgow for nearly a decade. He understood the environment.
"Unless you have an appreciation of the intensity of Glasgow, of the Old Firm rivalry and this bubble that exists here, you do not know what you are walking into.
"It can be a PR disaster if you lose a game at the Old Firm. There will be little patience for him if Rangers are 15 points behind Celtic next season.
"If you do not have the right people next to you either, then you will struggle. Gary McAllister has been confirmed as his assistant; he's a big character, hugely respected, and knows the game in Scotland having been captain of the national team.
"But again, he hasn't enjoyed the most successful coaching career, and so it looks to some like Rangers are putting together a management team here and hoping it will stick."
Paterson is also adamant Gerrard will need both financial support and stability in the board in order to challenge Rodgers and Celtic next season.
"The things that need to happen [for Gerrard to succeed in the role] are he needs to be provided with financial backing to invest in the squad, and significant backing at that, considering the way Celtic are operating at present. There is talk amongst supporters that an announcement on that could be imminent.
"They need a recruitment strategy with Allen that is based on sound principles and building blocks. Many of the players Rangers brought in under [previous boss Pedro] Caixinha were poor purchases.
"The club paid them a lot of money and now they may need to pay many of them off; those players will need to be moved on before new ones can arrive.
"If Gerrard can attract high-quality players to Ibrox, that will be fantastic for the Scottish game, but the club has to build from the bottom up.
"And there needs to be stability above him in the boardroom, as well as assurances that the club is financially viable going forward - which is still uncertain - and a realistic expectation as to what he can achieve.
"Rangers are a huge club who could win the league again in the future. But as it stands, if you were to say that Rangers could win the title in a year's time, there is little no conceivable prospect of that."
This is before we even talk about the huge rebuilding job that will need to be undertaken at the club this summer.
"The team probably needs a complete overhaul," explains Paterson. "It'll be a challenge to build a side over the summer - especially with a World Cup on, when it is trickier to bring in new players - with a manager who has never coached a first team before, and expect them to suddenly gel."
Ultimately, though, is this a bigger risk for Rangers or Gerrard?
"It is a no-brainer for him if he wants a manager's job that is high profile," thinks Paterson. "This is one of the biggest jobs in British football - for someone of his high profile to take on the job, given the club's upheaval in recent years, is a huge boost to Scottish football and a real feather in the cap for Rangers, from a publicity perspective.
"But he must be successful, and beating Celtic is the only way to do that. Every Rangers manager since Walter Smith left has failed for different reasons, but ultimately it was because they couldn't beat Celtic."
In the end, only time will tell…
