Barry Ferguson likes what he sees, but reckons Steven Gerrard’s Rangers still need a leader

BARRY FERGUSON reckons rookie Rangers boss Steven Gerrard is the perfect man to help the Ibrox club avoid another embarrassing early European exit.

Ferguson, who captained Rangers to the UEFA Cup Final in 2008, watched on in horror as his former side were dumped out of the Europa League at the first hurdle last season by Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn.

The Ibrox club enter the competition at the same stage this season, with Macedonians FK Shkupi the visitors on July 12 in Gerrard’s first competitive match in charge.

Ferguson is confident Gerrard won’t allow the type of complacency to creep into his new-look side that left Pedro Caixinha and his players a laughing stock last season.

“It can’t get any worse than last year, can it? That was disastrous, a shocker of a result, an embarrassment,” the former Rangers captain admitted.

“As a player, you have to work harder than your opponent. But, in that tie, it looked to me like Rangers didn’t want it as much as Progres.

“A club like Rangers has to be in Europe. For me, they should be in the Champions League.

“Getting off to a good start in the Europa League could be a real positive, and would give them a morale boost, 100%.

“Of course, there will be difficult games because you go into some of them blind, and don’t know too much about the teams you’re playing against.

“But I think it’ll be a different Rangers this year. I can sense a different mentality.

“With a manager like Gerrard in, and the type of character he is, if a player isn’t giving 100%, he just won’t play.”

The new manager has been busy in the transfer market, and Ferguson admits he has been impressed with the business done.

He said: “Rangers have signed a lot of players in the last few windows. But, this time, it’s a different calibre of player they’ve brought in.

“They’ve played at a good level in the UK.

“I’ve seen a lot of players come up and struggle to adapt to Scottish football. But I’m sure these guys will because they’ve got good pedigrees.

“Good players cost money in a transfer fee or wages. So credit to the Board because they’ve backed the manager so far.

“But he wouldn’t have taken the job if that wasn’t going to be the case.

“If you are building a team, then you’ve got to go through the spine and I think that’s what Gerrard’s looked at, and building round about it.

“It looks to me as if he’s getting a kind of physical presence about Rangers, which I felt was lacking last season – certainly against Celtic.

“I still think they need a top midfielder.

“But that’s going to cost money and whether they can do it or not is another thing.

“They need a proper leader in the middle of the park, and there’s no one better to identify that than Steven Gerrard.

“I find myself trying not to get too excited. It’s hard! I am excited.

“Rangers have a manager who I’ve played against,and he was a fantastic player.

“I just like the mentality he will bring. I like the way he speaks.

“I think he is creating a siege mentality. It’s what is needed and what has been missing at Rangers. It’s not just great for Rangers, it’s great for Scottish football. There’s a lot of attention now on Scottish football – and not just because of Gerrard coming in.

“There were a lot of good games last season, and it was competitive with Hibs challenging and Aberdeen finishing second.

“I just hope Rangers have a better season than last year, and get a bit of silverware.

“But, first, get through the qualifying rounds, into the Europa League and mount a decent challenge to Aberdeen, then Celtic.”

n Barry Ferguson was speaking at the ‘Live it for Lee’ event, an annual charity football game in  the memory of Lee Jamieson, who tragically lost his battle with leukaemia.

Organised by Lee’s family, profits from last week’s match will go to BLOODWISE, a UK charity aimed at funding research into beating blood cancers.