Kris Commons has called out Steven Gerrard as he flirted with the likely vacancy coming up as manager of Newcastle United.
After some typically slippy chat about his great mate Steve Bruce the Ibrox boss went into some detail about Newcastle fans deserving success. In the last decade Newcastle have won one trophy less than Sevco.
Most Scottish media outlets, denied access to the Ibrox media conference, were happy to parrot those quotes without highlighting the fact that Gerrard ought to be fully committed to the club that have paid his wages for over three years.
Last season’s title win seems to have been barely noticed outside of Scotland, no offers came in for Gerrard’s stars during the summer transfer window and despite his own profile no serious offers came the way of the Liverpool and England legned.
Putting those strands together in his Daily Mail column, The Sun reports Commons saying:
When the prospect of becoming the next Newcastle manager was put to Brendan Rodgers last week, he offered absolutely no scope for anyone to read between the lines.
He pointed out that he had a contract with Leicester until 2025, loved the job, considered himself fortunate to be in it and was 100-per-cent committed. Completely unambiguous.
His comments were so strong, in fact, that his name immediately fell out of every bookmaker’s shortlist. Everyone now knows he’s a non-runner in the race to replace Steve Bruce once the axe inevitably falls.
Compare and contrast that with Steven Gerrard’s response to the same question: all that talk about him taking a ‘keen interest’ in events at St James’ Park and how the Geordie fans ‘deserved a break’.
It wasn’t exactly a manager distancing himself from a job, was it? It was certainly an awful long way from the kind of solid commitment Rodgers gave to Leicester.
All Gerrard had to say was he had absolutely no interest in the Newcastle job and that his only concern was improving Rangers and winning more trophies.
That he did not speaks volumes for me. He had the chance to put an end to the mounting speculation and refused to take it.
Let’s not forget this also came on the back of publicly expressing his dismay at being unable to spend serious money in the past two transfer windows.
He knows exactly how his comments will be viewed. Whether Newcastle are interested in him is one thing. But there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s interested in Newcastle.
Gerrard’s ideal scenario would be moving from Rangers to Liverpool as Jurgen Klopp’s successor. The problem for him is that Klopp’s contract doesn’t expire until 2024 and there is nothing to suggest he will leave sooner.
Gerrard’s already been in Glasgow for three seasons and he would need to do another three to take him up to that date.
I’m just not convinced that he fancies sticking around that long and is now resigned to managing somewhere else in the interim.
In that case, he would actually be no different from any player moving from Scotland. Very rarely do they go straight from one of our clubs to the likes of Liverpool. Usually a stepping stone like Southampton is needed.
An Anfield legend or not, that’s what Gerrard may have to do if he’s to have any chance of eventually succeeding Klopp.
Gerrard will face the media again on Wednesday to preview the Europa League match against Brondby where he might be questioned by some Danes.
With no points and no goals from two Europa League matches following home and away defeats from Malmo Gerrard’s fabled European record isn’t standing up to close scrutiny.
