Davie Provan has brough Barry Ferguson upto date by explaining managing at Ibrox is no longer a magnificent job.
If it was a ‘magnificent job’ it probably wouldn’t have been filled by Mark Warburton, Stuart McCall, Pedro Caixinha, Graeme Murty, Ally McCoist or Kenny McDowall.
Without access to a bank overdraft and HMRC watching closely over every disclosure times have changed from the carefree days Ferguson enjoyed under Dick Advocaat and Alex McLeish.
Current Dutch internationalists have been replaced by projects from Liverpool while the January transfer window unearthed loans for a striker surplus to requirements at Hibs and a Romanian wonder-kid from Belgium.
Steven Gerrard has visibly aged over the last couple of weeks with the expectations on the winter break proving too much for his squad to handle.
When Ferguson was in the home dressing room he’d never have read a programme note like James Tavernier’s confession that his side can’t cope with pressure.
Responding to the delusions and excuses, in The Sun, Provan explains:
For Gerrard, it was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse. How many youth coaches would be offered the top job at Rangers? But if timing is everything in football, his was rotten. With Rangers dwarfed by Celtic’s financial muscle, Ibrox was never the place for him to cut his teeth.
Following the latest embarrassment against Hamilton, Gers legend Barry Ferguson said Gerrard knows he’s in “a magnificent job”.Sorry Barry, but the Ibrox gig is a poisoned chalice right now.
It might have been magnificent when Walter Smith was outsmarting and outspending Liam Brady or when Dick Advocaat was toying with the novice John Barnes. Not now. Arguably, Gerrard is in the most difficult job in British football. One where expectation outstrips reality in a city where second is last.
With ten in a row up for grabs next season, does he need the grief he’d get if he came up short again? Even by the standards of the Glasgow madhouse, next season is likely to be off the Richter Scale.
Of more immediate concern are the noises coming out of the club right now. When your captain is publicly admitting Rangers can’t cope with opposition pressure, where does that leave Gerrard?
In December Gerrard signed a contract keeping him at Ibrox until June 2024.