RANGERS are more than capable of going on and doing the league and cup double this season and they will want to prove that they are the dominant team and finish the season by winning two trophies.

Celtic have had a little bit of a resurgence recently and look like they are a stronger unit just now than they were during a difficult few months. That is a danger to Rangers and they will need to be at their best or Celtic could go through.

I really feel that this is a great chance for Rangers to add the Scottish Cup to the Premiership title, but this is not the final and they would still have to go and win it if they were to beat Celtic on Sunday.

The Herald: Steven Gerrard celebrates through the window

You can’t be disrespectful and think that if you win at Ibrox then you have won the cup, but it is obvious that the team that is victorious here will be favourites to go all the way.

Having won the league, Rangers and Steven Gerrard will want to emphasise why they have been so successful and so dominant.

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That will be in their minds, I would certainly be thinking that, and Steven will want his players to have that mentality.

I saw the comments last week from John Kennedy when he stated that Celtic still have the best squad in Scotland and I fully understand him wanting to back up his team and his players.

If you don’t do that and don’t have faith in them, then the fans will be wondering what is going on at the club. And the players won’t be too impressed either.

I am not saying that John is making it up and he clearly believes that to be the case. Celtic are still a very good side but their recruitment this season wasn’t as good as it could have been and that has cost them.

They do still have a formidable side on their day but it is great when the opposition manager says something that you feel you can use in your team-talk.

The Herald: Steven Gerrard

Some of the players don’t read the papers and you have to remind them and you do hear managers say that their team-talk was done for them by an opposition coach.

I’m not saying that is the case with John. He is a budding young coach and he has to support his players and we will see how Celtic, and Rangers, react to those comments at the weekend.

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Rangers have had a few weeks now to focus on the Scottish Cup after winning the league and that is different to the situations we had back during my spell as manager.

When we won the league against Dunfermline, for example, we only had a few days to prepare for the Scottish Cup final against Dundee.

The players certainly had a good time after winning the league as well! But they still had the professionalism and the wherewithal to get the job done and to win at Hampden to finish the season on a high.

Steven finds himself in a different place this season but he is very aware of the demands of the support and he knows how much it means for a club of Rangers’ size to be winning all the time and he needs to take that next step as a manager now.

When you win that first trophy as a manager, it gives you evidence that you have got what it takes. Winning a league shows you have the stamina factor, but it is also about bottle, mentality and the team spirit.

The Herald: Alex McLeish won the Treble with Rangers in 2003

Rangers will want to finish this season on a high and they will be expecting to go on and win the double and get that next piece of silverware secured as quickly as possible.

When you are at a club like Rangers, it is all about winning and I was fortunate that I didn’t have to wait too long to sample that and we were successful in my first season there.

When I first went in, I was greeted by the Press talking about my underwhelming welcome! They had Dick Advocaat there and that was at a time when Rangers and Celtic were looking to bring in top foreign coaches so getting the job was a huge honour and opportunity for me.

David Murray came in for me and said ‘I bet you didn’t think you would get this job!’ but I was proud of what I had done and proud to then be manager of Rangers.

Then you start to think ‘right, I have got Celtic in a couple of weeks in the cup semi-final’ and you know straight away what is at stake.

You have got one negative monkey on your left shoulder and the positive one on your right. The negative one is saying ‘what if you never, ever win a trophy?’ but the one on the right is saying ‘but what if you do?’.

The Herald: Former Rangers manager Alex McLeish irked Ronny Deila with his comments at the Scottish Cup draw.

You have to focus on the positives and that was the thing that was really important to me when David Murray gave me the opportunity to join Rangers.

I had so much confidence and belief in myself and in the players that I was taking charge of and I felt that I could take them to another level.

I wanted to get in amongst those players – the likes of de Boer, Arveladze, Ferguson and all these top players – and get their confidence back and get them back playing again.

Winning that semi-final in the League Cup was absolutely crucial to what happened next and now we have Steven winning the league and you think about how important that could be in terms of his next drive for a trophy.

He has had to wait a bit longer for his first one but, whenever it comes, it just whets your appetite and once you get a taste of success you want to go again and again.

When you are at Rangers, it is all about winning. Steven has done that in the Premiership and now he will want to add to that at the first opportunity and there would be no better way of doing that than beating Celtic and then going on to lift the Scottish Cup.