Steven Gerrard celebrates three years at Ibrox; Rangers manager has led side to an unbeaten league campaign; Gerrard's team also set new clean sheet record and broke 100-point barrier; former Liverpool captain credits Jurgen Klopp advice
Saturday 15 May 2021 18:15, UK
Steve Gerrard still remembers the advice he received from Jurgen Klopp prior to becoming Rangers manager in 2018.
It has been three years since Gerrard took charge at Ibrox and will mark that milestone in style when Rangers lift the Premiership trophy for the first time in a decade.
But the 40-year-old won't be getting too carried away thanks to a chat with Klopp while still at Liverpool.
Gerrard told Sky Sports: "I remember having a conversation with Jurgen about management before I even took this role - 'what are some of the key things you can tell me? What can I take from you that will help me moving forward?'
"He always said to try and be as balanced as you can. Now I know exactly why he said that.
"Because this journey takes you all over the place - incredible feelings, but it has also taken me down as well."
Gerrard plans to sit down and analyse the season in a couple of weeks but says thoughts will quickly turn to the next campaign.
"I'll be immensely proud of what we achieved, I'll reset myself and do whatever I need to do in the background to try and make this group as strong and competitive as I can," he said.
"I'm as ambitious as anyone connected to this club. I want to try and get this club Champions League football and to defend our title with our life, and I want to put the cup thing right as it doesn't sit well with me.
"I want to come back in pre-season with a fair chance of being successful, that's all I ask for. Hopefully, the board will support me on that and we go again."
Gerrard knew he was taking on a big job when he agreed to become Rangers manager in May 2018 but it was only after speaking to people at the club that he realised he had been given "an incredible opportunity".
"I knew it was big but you educate yourself even more," he said. "You listen to ex-players, supporters, people who have worked at the training ground and Ibrox over many years, and you get more education in terms of the size and magnitude.
"I always knew it was an institution but when you go away on European games and are involved in Old Firms, and you're sampling it for yourself, this club has really blown me away in terms of size and stature."
"Let's go." Steven Gerrard's words at his unveiling as Rangers manager in May 2018 served as a call to arms for a support which had been dealt one hammer blow after another in recent years.
It was the exciting appointment Rangers fans needed - thousands lined up at Ibrox on the day he was presented. A serial-winning midfielder, forever linked with Liverpool but with little top-level coaching experience, brought to Glasgow to try and restore the club's former glories.
Gerrard had been working as a Liverpool academy coach for little more than a year when he decided to take on one of the most imposing and fraught challenges in British football. Deliver the now-fabled title number 55 and stop Celtic's march towards 10-in-a-row.
Gary McAllister, Michael Beale, Tom Culshaw and Jordan Milsom joined Gerrard as his backroom team, re-enforcing that Liverpool connection but, more importantly, providing a stable, modern, forward-thinking coaching staff at the heart of the club.
Few could have predicted how dominant Rangers would be at the start of the season given what had gone before. So how have they done it? Click here as we analyse the job Gerrard has done at Irbox, what has changed and what comes next.
