Gerrard on profile of players he wants this summer

Hank Hill

Well-Known Member
Steven Gerrard wants to sign Rangers players who crave the legendary status attached to stopping Celtic’s bid for 10-in-a-row.

The Ibrox gaffer has made it clear he knows what’s required to challenge their Old Firm rivals for the Premiership title next term.

And in this summer’s transfer market he won’t just look for technically-gifted players who will make Gers better.

Because, with the Hoops set to make it eight titles on the spin in the next few weeks, Gerrard knows it’s even more important than that.

He will challenge potential targets to show they have the mentality to be part of a side that ends Celtic’s run.

He will be looking for leaders who show the same qualities as Greatest Ranger John Greig to lead the fightback.

And he believes that if the Ibrox side can stop them in their tracks, they’ll be revered by the supporters in the same way as their own nine-in-a-row heroes.

As Gerrard lined up his recruitment drive, he said: “As a team, we have to make ourselves an exciting and attractive proposition for certain players.

“And if you’re a player looking in at Rangers now, you’re probably thinking: ‘There’s something brewing there.’

“They have to ask: ‘Can I be that player to make the difference?’

“People talk about the nine-in-a-row era and Celtic’s dominance lately. Can you imagine being part of the Rangers team who are the next to be successful?

“Because if you get one title it will be just as important for people as the team who got nine.

“We feel this is an attractive place for exciting players to come and help us. The challenge for me is to get them over the line.

“The Celtic team that stopped Rangers’ 10-in-a-row is still regarded as being up there with their great teams.

“That’s the way it is up here. It’s a tough challenge for everyone here because Celtic are dominating.

“They’re in a position where they can go and spend £9million on a player. We’ll keep an eye on movements across the road, in terms of how they strengthen in the summer. But what’s important is that we’re in a position to challenge that. The reality is we need to add quality for that to happen.

“It’s hard to find players with that mentality because they often cost a lot of money.

“So we have to weave some magic in the market to find those players who might surprise people.

“Not everyone with that quality costs money.

“There’s people running down contracts, free transfers, players who are blocked at big clubs – like we’ve seen with Ryan Kent.

“There are exciting players out there but we have to go and strike – and convince people that this is the destination for them to come and have a good time.”

Gerrard would love to incorporate young players into his set-up for next season, with Rangers’ academy sides performing well at different age groups.

But knowing the pressure that will come to bear – with chairman Dave King insisting Gers are “within tangible reach” of becoming the dominant force again – the manager admits he needs ready-made stars.

He said: “I have a profile of the players I want, in certain cases.

“But I can’t say ideally I want a 19 or 20 year old. They might not be ready. I need players who are ready now but I appreciate it’s important to keep producing players and I won’t ignore the academy.

“I want Craig Mulholland (Rangers head of academy) to keep producing players to help us.

Steven Gerrard insists Jermain Defoe is Rangers' first choice striker as he fires Alfredo Morelos warning
“But the reality is that you don’t get time at a club like Rangers. I need players now – forget their age.

“The profile has to demand that they’re ready to win. We don’t need squad players. We need guys who will affect the 11 and make the squad stronger.

“The planning has already begun, it never stops. It’s now time to really strive for quality.

“We have a good base but need to create a winning team and successful squad.

“That challenge is exciting – the thought of creating something that’s capable of challenging for big prizes.

“We’re fishing in certain markets where it’s difficult to find those individuals. But that’s the challenge for us.

“People talk about marquee signings but what is that?

“What we need are players to improve our starting team and there’s different ways of doing it.

“You can spend millions or you can look at interesting loans or frees that can help you.

“But until we actually sit down with the board and find out what resources are available, it’s difficult to say who or how many.”

Gerrard’s first season as a gaffer has been a learning curve.

For the first time, he has admitted he probably took too long to come down on Ibrox bad boy Alfredo Morelos who was sent off five times in the campaign – most notably in big games against Aberdeen and Celtic.

Gerrard said: “I’ve learned a lot about my players, the environments we have to go to in the
Scottish Premiership, managers’ tactics against us. And I’ve also learned that we have to improve our discipline.

“Making a stand recently with Alfredo sent a message out. And the code of conduct here will be tweaked in the summer.

“I tried to be respectful to the dressing-room by not ripping up everything that had worked before.

“But it will be tweaked now, on and off the pitch.

“It’s up for debate whether I waited too long with Alfredo. But if someone accused me of that, I’d probably have to accept it.”
 
I said this after the Press Conference yesterday, but Gerrard seemed very disatisfied with the first eleven with his comments and they should be closer in points than they are. No excuses, we gifted points away too many times in that crazy period after the break; the players who come in have to be better than what we have already in some, not all, positions.
 
If Stevie stops the filth getting 10 in a row he becomes a legend. I am sure given his mentality he is desperate to achieve that.

I am equally sure Dave king feels the same.
 
I really want us to try find players from similar sized league, who have experience winning titles.

Plenty of players in Sweden, Austria, Switzerland that have experience of playing for clubs who are expected to win and have that pressure of playing in the proverbial cup final every week.
The same pressure as at Ibrox?
The same pressure applied by a 50,000 crowd.
 
Our Chairman made a war-cry to advertise to STH to renew, a totally expected move. Our gaffer knows it’s his job to deliver a result on the park, so he kept his cool and stayed diplomatic. I have full faith in all of SG, DK and MA to break ground this summer and do what needs to be done. 55 next year.
 
We are in a much better shape to compete next season. What we need now are winners. They don’t have to be technically brilliant, they have to be raging leaving the pitch if they have just given up a late equalizer to an inferior team. They have to be raging if they haven’t broken down a St Johnstone defence at Ibrox. They have to be winners above everything else.
 
"We don’t need squad players. We need guys who will affect the 11 and make the squad stronger."

Thank %^*& is all I can say to that. Why sign a Greg Stewart or a Jake Hastie who will be subs? Souttar or Katić? Katić and Goldson partnership everyday of the week.

Even Docherty will struggle to break into the starting 11.
 
I absolutely love the guy, should go on the hall of fame the instant he gets 55
 
“But until we actually sit down with the board and find out what resources are available, it’s difficult to say who or how many.”

Surely this should have been known ages ago??

I really hope King isn't going to let SG down.
Not really, budgets change all the time and SGs opinion on a few players may have changed a fair bit over the season.
 
Not really, budgets change all the time and SGs opinion on a few players may have changed a fair bit over the season.
Our main and only real significant revenue is ST income. It's pretty much safe to say that we will have the same numbers as this season. King should know what we have to spend. I'd like to think this has been communicated to SG and MA long before now.

I guess the only unanswered question is exactly how much we will get for Morelos and when.
 
Our main and only real significant revenue is ST income. It's pretty much safe to say that we will have the same numbers as this season. King should know what we have to spend. I'd like to think this has been communicated to SG and MA long before now.

I guess the only unanswered question is exactly how much we will get for Morelos and when.
Better domestic performance might have altered the budget. Might be waiting to see the income from Europe also. I hope the majority of money taken in from fees will go directly to the team, including the Barisic and Grezda fees when they go.
 
Heard it all before to be fair. I’ll just for the evidence this time. If we get players that want it bad enough we’ll have done well.
 
Think he has someone already lined up that fulfills the criteria . A leader who knows how to win leagues could be a big marquee signing.
 
Delighted with those comments.

However, 1) if we don’t need squad players, I’m unsure about Jones, Stewart et al. And 2) it’s concerning that he still needs to talk to the Board to see what resources are available. That should have been done months ago, surely.
 
“We don’t need squad players. We need guys who will affect the 11 and make the squad stronger.”

Absolutely spot on. But why are we then signing squad players? Unless he doesn’t think they’re squad players.
 
Delighted with those comments.

However, 1) if we don’t need squad players, I’m unsure about Jones, Stewart et al. And 2) it’s concerning that he still needs to talk to the Board to see what resources are available. That should have been done months ago, surely.
Months ago,what like November,December or January...........when we’re in the middle of a title race?
 
“We don’t need squad players. We need guys who will affect the 11 and make the squad stronger.”

Absolutely spot on. But why are we then signing squad players? Unless he doesn’t think they’re squad players.

We're moving squad players on in the summer. Some of those are out of contract. We need to replace those players.

It will be 3 or 4 quality first team players will be over and above that.
 
We're moving squad players on in the summer. Some of those are out of contract. We need to replace those players.

It will be 3 or 4 quality first team players will be over and above that.
He literally said we dont need squad players.

We have that big a squad full of average players that if one leaves they don’t really need replaced.
 
“We don’t need squad players. We need guys who will affect the 11 and make the squad stronger.”

Absolutely spot on. But why are we then signing squad players? Unless he doesn’t think they’re squad players.
We've only signed Jones.
 
Rousing words here from the manager and while I'd wholeheartedly agree with the quality he talks of, I can't help but feel that will to win attitude he's looking for in a player has to come from him. Its up to him to instill that into his players.

I'm happy with the improvement Gerrard has made to the team but I'm also hoping he's aware there's room for improvement personally. His motivation for the players and his ability to change things when we really need it can improve. There's been times this season when results have went the wrong way when really we should have managed better.
All the best managers can get inside the heads of their squad and build a mentality from within.

Stephen Gerrard never had a problem leading from the front as a player because he demanded the best from himself whenever he was on the park and teammates responded around him. Rangers need that same motivation and leadership from him in the dugout now and its crucial he understands that.
He needs look no further than our own Walter Smith for what it takes to create that attitude in a team. Never beaten and enter every match with a real belief you ain't going to accept defeat. If its not working you have to find a way to get those points in the bag and I'm sorry but a lot of that has to come from the dugout.

Yes we do need more quality, it's pretty much stating the obvious but without being over critical I'd like to think Stevie knows there's more for him to give on that touchline.
 
“We don’t need squad players. We need guys who will affect the 11 and make the squad stronger.”

Absolutely spot on. But why are we then signing squad players? Unless he doesn’t think they’re squad players.
Jesus Christ mate just wait and see what happens over the summer eh?

You keep banging on about this and nobody on here is going to be able to give you the answer.

Wait and see what unfolds or you could hike through the wilderness in Tibet and meditate on the top of some mountain and maybe find out, because nobody on Follow Follow is going to be able to tell you.
 
Stewart is a formality.

Keep being pedantic though. What a laugh.
Almost as amusing as your constant whinging on threads.

Away and have an Easter egg and cheer yourself up .
 
He literally said we dont need squad players.

We have that big a squad full of average players that if one leaves they don’t really need replaced.

I think he's more trying to emphasise the need for first team signings.

With looking at the squad, we will have probably low double digits of people moving, the vast majority being squad guys. We don't have the money to replace all of them with first team quality in one window.

We'll be signing some supplementary squad players.
 
“But until we actually sit down with the board and find out what resources are available, it’s difficult to say who or how many.”

Surely this should have been known ages ago??

I really hope King isn't going to let SG down.

Exactly.

They should be well down road with targets and bosmans ready to be announced.
 
Why do the media when discussing next season, always mentions trying to stop 10 in a row..
Surely Rangers objective for next season is stopping 9.??
 
I don’t get the Stewart one.

From what I hear he isn’t much of a professional and doesn’t treat his body the way a modern footballer should. Hasn’t done much at Birmingham or Aberdeen.
A talented player but he isn’t someone to rely on.
 
I really want us to try find players from similar sized league, who have experience winning titles.

Plenty of players in Sweden, Austria, Switzerland that have experience of playing for clubs who are expected to win and have that pressure of playing in the proverbial cup final every week.

I would like to see us try and sign James Milner, and a couple of rexperieced players of his type.
I know the response will be, that we can't afford players like him.
But i think a man like S.G.could convince players like him to sign for us.
These players have made their money playing down south, so i honestly don't think it's a priority to them.
I think a few may take up Stevie Gs.challenge,;and come up and try to help him towards reaching his goal next season.omo.
 
I said this after the Press Conference yesterday, but Gerrard seemed very disatisfied with the first eleven with his comments and they should be closer in points than they are. No excuses, we gifted points away too many times in that crazy period after the break; the players who come in have to be better than what we have already in some, not all, positions.

Yes we gifted a lot of points away, but unfortunately, Morelos lost us games, owing to his poor discipline and bad behaviour.
Something that's no longer going to be acceptable any longer by S.G.thankfully.
Personally i don't think Alfredo will be seen in a Rangers jersey again, im sorry to say that, but it's what i believe.And ive a feeling others fans feel the same as i do.
 
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