STEVEN Gerrard is excited by the prospect of becoming Rangers manager but needs reassurances about the club’s spending power, according to former Liverpool teammate Danny Murphy.
The 37-year-old is closing in on the Ibrox job after holding talks to take over from Graeme Murty, but Murphy revealed that the deal is still far from done.
Gerrard, who is currently in charge of the Under-18s at Anfield, is set for further discussions this week but the former Fulham midfielder says uncertainty over the resources he will be handed to challenge rivals Celtic remains the main concern.
Read more: Tam McManus: Appointing Steven Gerrard would not be a huge gamble for Rangers
Speaking on TalkSport, he said: “The truth is there’s nothing definitive. He has had talks and they were positive. I think that’s a good thing for Rangers.
“He’s got more this week. He’s a really ambitious guy Steven. He always has been from the moment he walked onto the training pitch at Melwood as a young lad but he’s also bright.
“And I don’t think he’s going to put myself in a position where he goes into a job with his hands tied in terms of the resources he’s got to compete with Brendan. Ironic really isn’t it, that Brendan’s at Celtic.
“But the thing is, I think he is probably needing some more reassurances regarding what they can give him.
“The only thing with that is, how do you get concrete reassurances with something like that?
“I suppose as a football club Rangers can’t be trying to get someone like Steven who is young, hungry and ambitious to go there and try and compete and sell him a dummy.
“You have to think there’s some credibility in what they’re trying to do.
“He seemed excited, but without the confirmation of what it actually really entailed.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here