STEVEN Gerrard last night vowed to channel all of his energies into getting Rangers’ own “house in order” this summer after being unveiled as manager at Ibrox amid raucous scenes.
The Liverpool great, who put pen to paper on a four year contract yesterday, will inherit a team in disarray when he moves to Glasgow on June 1 after another bitterly disappointing season.
He faces a difficult task halting the all-conquering Celtic side managed by Brendan Rodgers, who he played under at Anfield, in the 2018/19 campaign.
But the 37-year-old, who will leave his role as under-18 coach at Anfield at the end of the month to take up his first managerial appointment, stressed he will concentrate on building a team capable of challenging for silverware.
“To be honest, where I sit right now, it’s not the right time and place for me to talk about Celtic,” he said after being paraded in front of around 7,000 jubilant Rangers fans at Ibrox.
“There will be plenty of time for that in the future when we move forward and we start the challenge from the new season.
“My priority is Rangers and this house. I need to get this house in order, I need to produce a team and squad that’s capable of winning football matches.
“I want the supporters to skip into this place to watch that team and be proud of them and to see we can take the team and club forward and make it competitive.
“That’s my priority, not what Celtic have been doing and not what other people have been doing in the league. I have to focus on every challenge that’s coming at us but for us to win those challenges and come out on top of them we need to sort Rangers out first.”
Gerrard added: “I want to win football matches from the off. I want to win every game. I am not sitting here thinking ‘I need that amount of time, I need that amount of support’. I am focused on the first game of football that we play and winning that football match.”
“I see it as an opportunity and a challenge. That’s what I’m about, that’s what I love, that’s my buzz, to take a challenge on and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Gerrard had made Gary McAllister, the former Scotland internationalist who he played alongside as Liverpool won the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 2001, as his assistant manager.
He believes having the former Coventry City and Leeds United manager and Middlesbrough, Aston Villa and Liverpool coach alongside
Asked how important an appointment it was, he said: “For me, huge. We are already close. We have known each other for a long time and the key thing you are looking for when you are looking for an assistant is trust. Gary ticks that box.
“He is a football man, he has been around the game for a long time as a player, a coach, an assistant and he has also been around Liverpool of late so I have seen quite a lot of Gary recently as well.
“He is as excited as me, he can’t wait to get going. It was important that I found someone with experience because everyone knows in the room this is the first job opportunity for me that I have taken. He will certainly be the perfect assistant for me.”
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