Having helped oust Russell Martin through their constant campaigning the Daily Record is whipping their army of readers into a state of excitement over his successor.
Normally the international break requires some deep digging to keep up the pageviews but Sunday’s announcement on Martin was perfectly timed.
Take your pick from Steven Gerrard, Derek McInnes and Barry Ferguson and you have good news for all bears.
And clickety click on the Record website as readers return for updates as the focus switches to a different candidate.
RUNNERS AND RIDERS
Internally at the Record they are split between McInnes and Ferguson. If a Dream Team involving that duo was installed it would be perfect.
Gerrard however is the bigger name, the glamour and the only man to stop Celtic in the last 14 years.
The Covid season was freaky throughout football but it is all that a generation of bears have to hang onto.
There is increasing evidence that kids don’t want taken to Ibrox by their parents.
For the EPL generation Gerrard is box office. He might last less than a year, longer than Martin but right now bears need some good news. The hope of hope.
Delivering for their readers the Record reports:
Steven Gerrard insists he IS ready for a return to management if the ”right” call comes.
The former Rangers boss is odds-on favourite to make an emotional return to Ibrox, where he led the club to their first Scottish Premiership title in a decade in 2021.
Rangers are on the hunt for a successor after Russell Martin was axed on Sunday following an ill-fated 122 days in the hot-seat.
Record Sport exclusively revealed on Monday that the 45-year-old has serious reservations over the quality of the squad he would have at his disposal.
Covering both options, bracing themselves for disappointment.
But Gerrard was a guest on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast with his old England team-mate – and Ibrox chiefs will be alert to the fact he’s opened the door to a dug-out return after rejecting half a dozen opportunities since being out of work.
Including the Ibrox job in the summer.
The best quotes from Gerrard that the Record could hang onto are:
I think certain jobs and certain clubs would suit my style and the way I like to go about it.
But I’ve also got time now where I’m not in a rush, where I know the right people that are out there to make me a stronger and a better coach. They’re the people I need to find. Because if I get the right match with them people around me, I know and I’ve proved I can be successful as a manager. And that’s what I’m working on in the background now.
But I’ve had five or six really interesting phone calls since I stopped in Saudi. And I haven’t been ready because I haven’t got that team set around me. And the timing hasn’t been right. My daughter’s just had a baby. I’ve just become a granddad. I wasn’t ready. I haven’t got my staff ready.
Four years ago Gerrard sneaked out the back door of Ibrox for Aston Villa.
He was despised, many bears took to burying or burning the full size cut outs standing in their bedrooms.
THE REVISION
Time is a great healer, especially at Ibrox where no manager has completed a full season since Gerrard left.
Today the focus could switch to McInnes or Ferguson.
Meanwhile time ticks by, there is no management team in place the next match is on October 18 at home to Dundee United.
As it stands Leeann Crichton and David McCallum are the most senior coaches on the pay-roll.
Neither of those options are likely to feature in the Record, in August print sales for the Glasgow based publisher went below 40,000.
Should the Celtic Fans Collective call for a full boycott of merchandise?
No, we must keep their income flowing
Yes, money is all that they understand
Oh how I pray Slippy returns for another go, then we can all put to bed this him being a top manager pish, a quick Google search will tell you his short but disastrous managerial career stats….. Also Steviebhoy you didn’t “stop” managing in Saudi, you were sacked, just like Villa and Sevco in the future.
HH
This is all hype to make them feel like a big thing in the world of football. Barry Ferguson is a stick on with a much lesser salary
Mind when Beale came back the entire media and the orcs were saying it was he who was the brains behind it all ?
The daily Record keep forgetting to mention in their many by – the – hour theRangers pieces that Gerrard would have tax problems if he returned to management in the UK . The Rangers and employee tax problems … whatever next ?