STEVEN Gerrard will surpass the achievements of his fellow Liverpool legend Graeme Souness at Ibrox if he leads Rangers to the Scottish title this season, according to Mark Walters.

The Scotland midfielder successfully resurrected the fortunes of the Govan club following a long period in the doldrums after he was appointed manager in 1986.

He brought in England internationalists Terry Butcher, Graham Roberts and Chris Woods and Rangers won the Premier Division for the first time in seven years at the end of his debut season in the dugout.

However, Walters, the skilful English winger who was signed from Aston Villa for £500,000 midway through the next season, feels that Gerrard has had a far more demanding task than Souness.

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And he is adamant that beating a Celtic side with a larger budget to the Ladbrokes Premiership in the 2019/20 campaign will top what his old manager accomplished.

“There are similarities between Gerrard and Souness,” he said. “Both were world class players who came into a situation where Rangers were not doing well.

“I suppose the advantage Souness had was more money and he was still playing. If anything, Gerrard’s situation has been more difficult. If he could win a trophy it would be a better achievement.

“If Steven Gerrard wins the league then it would eclipse what Graeme Souness achieved because when you pay big money for players then it’s rare you have to develop them as they’re standard quality players.

“But if you are buying, with all due respect, lesser players then you’ve got more to do. You’ve got to improve them more so having players with less ability and improving them to win trophies is a bigger achievement.

“Graeme Souness was also still playing which made a big difference because you know the idiosyncrasies of some players, if their heart is in it and when things go wrong if they’ll step up.

“When you’re not playing you sometimes need to get someone else’s opinion on whether they’re ready for the battle so if Steven Gerrard was a world class player - and could probably still do it now based on the charity games I’ve watched him in - he’d definitely improve things.

“So it’s been more difficult for him than it was for Graeme since he hasn’t been playing but it’s very important he wins something because, while things have improved and gone fantastically well thus far, a club like Rangers must lift trophies and coming second isn’t an option.

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“The first one is always important which is why I was a bit disappointed when he didn’t win the Betfred Cup final and they need to win the next competition they can win.”

Walters went on to sign for Liverpool and played in the Anfield club’s successful FA Cup campaign in the 1991/92 season. However, he always reckoned the demands on him to succeed at Ibrox were far greater.

He knows the title run-in this season will be intense for both defending champions Celtic and Rangers, who are two points behind in the Premiership with two games remaining, in the weeks ahead.

But he isn’t of the view that Neil Lennon’s men, who are bidding to win their ninth consecutive title, will prevail due to the fact they have been successful in the past.

“In terms of the clubs I played for, there was more pressure at Rangers to win trophies than anywhere else because there is less competition,” he said. “And it’s hard to escape the supporters in Glasgow as opposed to Liverpool where you can get away from it a little bit more.

“Rangers have so much to gain by winning the league so they have a lot of pressure but Celtic also have a huge financial advantage so it would also be bad for them if they didn’t win it.

“But because it’s been so long for Rangers then they’re under a lot of pressure to win something. Celtic might not get this chance again and when Rangers were going for 10-In-A-Row I remember them dropping points on alternate weeks because there was a lot of nerves.

“Celtic have more experienced players in terms of winning trophies, but that isn’t always a good thing. The Rangers players are less experienced in situations like this and might just think ‘we’ve got nothing to lose, let’s go for it’.”

“Premier Sports is the home of knockout football in Scotland, broadcasting the William Hill Scottish Cup and the Betfred Cup. Premier Sports will screen live and exclusive coverage of Rangers v Stranraer (Fri 17 Jan) and Partick Thistle v Celtic (Sat 18 Jan) in the Scottish Cup Fourth Round. Available on Sky, Virgin TV and via the Premier Player. Visit www.premiersports.com for details.”