gersnet article (image) Gerrard's impressive Rangers start

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One thing that is guaranteed is that when a bad result does inevitably come the press will put it down to Gerrard's "inexperience". When Rodgers gets knocked out out of UCL by a club with a fraction of the income and spending of Celtic it's the board's fault.

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The press and others who were derisive when Stevie was appointed already look extremely silly. They were mocking a man who has spent almost his entire life at the top level of professional football as if he were a complete newbie who had just entered the arena chancing his arm.

 

Yet here he is leading not just the only undefeated team in Scotland but a team who haven't even been behind in a game while exceeding the wildest expectations of our own fans far less those who hoped to see him crash and burn. Their mocking is all the more ludicrous when you consider a good point made by the most recent H and H podcast.

 

This is a man who has likely been planning for this since he was in his mid 20's. Not someone who just fell into this position with no idea at all of how he would handle it. The obsession with him among those who so desperately wished to see him fail is shifting focus. And the reason it's shifting focus is because he has proven to be anything but some clueless novice out of his depth.

 

Topic on front page of a hubz forum simply titled 'Steven Gerrad' has this comment on it from one of their own.

 

Quote

A 22 page thread on Steven Gerrard on Hibs.net.

Honestly?

Jesus wept.

A thread that now has 23 pages all about our manager. Jesus wept indeed, it's comical and the bulk of them don't grasp that. Since the idiot rookie line isn't panning out for them the focus is now being shifted to things like well he's a hypocrite. That because he dismissed the Morelos offer from Bordeaux as derisory while making an offer for Lafferty below the expectations of Hearts.

 

Plus it's now going to be Xmas before he's canned rather than just weeks into the season as they all hope and pray for a spectacular collapse which has become obvious to me just isn't going to happen. The man is an ultimate professional who in a very short space of time has created the most thorough and professional setup our club has seen in a very long time. Possibly ever seen.

 

The next challenge is going to be Ufa starting on Thursday night and if they are negotiated to put us in the EL group stages the financial benefits and the experience for our squad can move us so far ahead of the also rans they could become become a dot on the horizon behind us.

 

The win at Kilmarnock was major for me. Kilmarnock are a well organised outfit who are extremely difficult to beat on their own patch and the evidence for that has been there for all to see since Clarke took over. Away wins at Killie are a rarity yet at the end of the day we won there with relative comfort while not even deploying what will evolve into our first 11.

 

It was a hurdle I would have been cringing ahead of last season but though I still had some reservations this time round I still had real confidence we would clear it and when we did with such relative ease I became a 100% believer.

 

The Gerrard phenomenon is a real and developing major event and I can currently see it doing nothing but gathering more pace. There will be no major collapse and the win at Killie has convinced me of that. It was a hurdle we would have expected to be a a stumble last season but was easily navigated.

 

We are title challengers and even if we were to suffer a defeat at the piggery early next month I would still believe that. Win there and the meltdown we have been witnessing among those who so desperately wish to see us fall will hit critical mass. We're going to run this challenge right to the end while becoming ever stronger. The rest are standing still or even regressing while we go from strength to strength.

 

I confidently predict this team will hand out a number of complete thrashings this season because in some of these games everything will just click on the day and a barrow load of all those chances created will fly into the net. We really are in a new and defining era after all our travails over the past decade.