Gerrard slams 'almighty rush' to end Scottish Premiership season
Celtic looks set to be crowned champion without the Scottish Premiership being completed but Rangers boss Steven Gerrard wants to play on.
Published : May 06, 2020 20:56 IST
Steven Gerrard believes there has been an improper rush to wrap up the 2019-20 football season in Scotland.
The Championship, League One and League Two tables have been declared final after 81 per cent of the country's 42 senior clubs backed the Scottish Professional Football League's (SPFL) plans.
Many of those teams feared for their futures without end-of-season payments, although a final call is yet to be made in the top-flight Premiership, where Gerrard's Rangers are 13 points behind rival Celtic at the summit but could still mathematically win the league.
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Speaking to talkSPORT , the Liverpool great said he felt the process in Scotland compared unfavourably with efforts to restart the season in England amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"For myself – and I think everyone at Rangers was on the same page – what we wanted was to give it the best chance we can," he said.
"There was a different view from the Premier League and the EFL that they wanted to wait and give this season every single chance to be played.
"We all know and respect the fact that there might become a stage where that is impossible to happen. But there seemed to be an almighty rush from where we were to finish it and get the boats in as soon as possible. That didn't sit well at all.
"At Rangers we want to get back playing and get the season done when it's physically safe to do that, with all respect to the situation that we're in.
"Across Scotland, top to bottom, there was so much football to be played. Now, of course, I'm always going to be biased because I'm the Rangers manager and there's a 13-point gap, but I want to put as much pressure on to the end.
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"In other leagues, so many clubs had so much to play for and we felt there was a rush to finish it instead of giving it the best chances to be finished."
Despite progressing to the last 16 of the Europa League, where it lost 3-1 to Bayer Leverkusen at Ibrox in its final match before lockdown, Rangers' league form collapsed in February.
That allowed Celtic to storm towards a ninth consecutive title and Gerrard concedes there is room for improvement.
“We came extremely close to success this year in the League Cup, we have had success in the Europa League but the league has been disappointing," he added.
"It is my job to come up with answers and solutions as quick as we can to hopefully finish this season as strong as we can and then move on to next."