The Replacements: Derek McInnes and Steven Gerrard for Rangers | OneFootball

With Russell Martin running on his last Rangers legs, Ibrox Noise is now going to run our own ‘replacements’ series. Each entry will be dedicated to a potential candidate or two to highlight the good and bad of even man, and conclude our score out of 10 for their legitimacy.

We’re going to get the obvious one out of the way first:

Stevie G

Steven Gerrard. Today we cover Gerrard and if his return can bring about the change Rangers need.

The big plus for Gerrard is his aura, and the fact he won 55. He has experience of being the only champion at Ibrox since Walter Smith, which, in itself, is a bit embarrassing. He brings with him presence, and a real charisma. He knows what it takes at Rangers, and has offered many teases on social media that he remains a keen supporter of the club.

The downside? He’s a terrible terrible manager who relies on his assistants way too much, and has been a managerial flop since leaving Ibrox. He doesn’t possess a lot of knowledge on tactics and the game in general, and really isn’t coach material. He crashed at Villa and was even worse at Al-Ettifaq.

That said, give him the right backroom team and the combination can work. The players will look up to him, and go along with the system. He gets Rangers completely, and as a Liverpool (and Rangers) legend grasps ‘must win’. He is a winner, a complete winner.

Need

Do we want him? This is a 7/10 for us. We like it in theory, the closest thing to Walter since Walter, and of course he spoke a lot back in the day to the great man. We weren’t keen on his departure at all, and it betrayed a lot of fans, but he had openly challenged the board to support him after 55 and they simply hadn’t. He got nothing that summer as Rangers crashed to Malmo.

We can understand a lot of fans being very very keen on his return.

We wouldn’t completely say no to that happening.

McInnes

And the second one for this entry is Derek McInnes.

Of course the man has a job at Hearts, but wave enough compensation and Rangers will get their manager.

He’s infamous for having turned Rangers down at the 11th hour and has spoken at length about why, but he summed it up as saying he went with his head and not his heart. AKA he wanted nothing more than Rangers but he wasn’t ready for the job. He even hinted that’s what the Great Walter said at the time, and he spoke to the great man at length.

Ready

Now? He’s ready. It’s 8 years later and he’s a much maturer manager. He’s achieving great things at Hearts already and easily dispatched Rangers last weekend. He’s definitely a big shout, and if Rangers came back in he would be more equipped. Question is, would he now actually want the basket case of our club?

Who knows. But he’s very much one of us, and has admitted his heart is in Govan. Whether the time for that is now, we don’t know. He’s an 8/10, maybe even 9.

That’s just a couple of the candidates.