Steven Gerrard to meet with Rangers chairman Dave King

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard is preparing to have his first term report card marked by chairman Dave King as he looks to address the areas where his team must do better next season.
Rangers chairman Dave King. Picture: John DevlinRangers chairman Dave King. Picture: John Devlin
Rangers chairman Dave King. Picture: John Devlin

Gerrard knows his own performance in his debut season in management is under scrutiny after almost certainly failing to end the Ibrox club’s eight-year major trophy drought.

His immediate priority is to delay Celtic’s latest coronation as league champions as long as possible by avoiding defeat in Rangers’ final pre-split Premiership fixture at Motherwell tomorrow.

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But Gerrard is already laying down plans for the improvements he feels are needed to bring greater consistency to his side over the next 12 months. He will meet with King in the coming weeks when the South Africa-based businessman travels to Glasgow. Gerrard is eager to receive whatever feedback comes his way from the man who appointed him on a four-year contract last summer.

“We haven’t really discussed it over the phone in terms of my stuff and how I’m doing,” said Gerrard.

“But I’m sure that will be on the agenda when we do sit down. We haven’t spoken for a while, since the last time he was over. I’m sure Dave will give me his honest assessment and we will talk about moving forward. I’m not sure the exact date he will be over but I do know he will be here. I’m looking forward to catching up.”

Gerrard has radically overhauled the Rangers squad this season, signing 15 players in the summer transfer window and then making a further five additions in January.

As he considers his recruitment budget ahead of the 2019-20 campaign with King and director of football Mark Allen, he acknowledges he will be prioritising quality over quantity this time around.

“There won’t be wholesale changes this summer,” added Gerrard. “When I first arrived, I came into a broken dressing room with cliques, problems and issues. It was very important to make a lot of changes, freshen it up and provide a base we could build from and move forward.

“I think we have achieved that but it’s very clear now that it’s about quality. It’s not about adding players for the sake of it. We need to bring in a higher level of player, to give us more firepower and better numbers in the top end of the pitch. That’s where we have fallen a bit short at times this season.

“There are challenges which come with doing that and one of those is obviously financial. We have to wait and see what is available. There might be movement out of our squad and we have to wait and see what comes from that.

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“You always want to keep your best players but is something comes in that makes my eyebrows lift, where I can maybe move someone on who I think we can cope without 
and maybe strengthen in a more important area, that’s where Mark and myself have to juggle about a bit and find solutions.

“The other challenge is getting the right players in. Are they available, can we afford them and do they see this as an exciting challenge they want to be part of?

“I look forward to sitting down with Dave and the board in the weeks before the end of the season to see where we are, what the situation is and we will go from there.”