Gerrard´s Rangers title win a salve for Liverpool near-misses?

Steven Gerrard famously never won the Premier League as a player with his beloved Liverpool but he is delighted to have led Rangers to Scottish Premiership glory.

Gerrard came agonisingly close to top-flight success with the Reds, most memorably in the 2013-14 season when his slip against Chelsea proved costly for Brendan Rodgers’ charges.

Liverpool ended their 30-year title drought last season, six years after Gerrard called time on his long and distinguished Anfield career, and their former captain has enjoyed a stellar campaign at the Gers helm this term.

The Ibrox club wrapped up their first title since 2011 at the weekend, denying bitter rivals Celtic a 10th championship in a row in Gerrard’s third season in charge.

Despite his failure to clinch the top prize in England, Gerrard’s playing career yielded domestic trophy triumphs in the FA Cup and EFL Cup, while he also led the way in Liverpool’s Istanbul revival to secure the Champions League trophy in 2004-05.

The 40-year-old found it hard to compare those achievements with the feat of guiding Rangers to the title.

 GALLERY: Rangers Celebrate Championship.

Check out the full gallery #Champions55

— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) March 7, 2021

“To be honest with you, I haven’t really had time to reflect to think about the last two or three days and compare it to other achievements in my career,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s fair to compare achievements. What I achieved as a player was fantastic, of course it was, but I’m on a different journey, I’m on a different career path, I’m at a different club.

“It’s not really about me, from a personal point of view. Me making up for highs or lows or comparing stuff. It’s about Rangers, it’s about achieving our first massive goal together. It’s all about the players and the supporters for me.

“In this position, I’m extremely proud of both. First and foremost the player for doing the majority of the job and doing it in style, but also the backing we’ve had since the first day I came in has been incredible as well.”

Rangers are still vying for further silverware in the Scottish Cup and Europe League, but Gerrard conceded he would have to make allowances for his players to enjoy their success.

“Obviously the size of the achievement and the emotions that came with that, I think the players deserve to celebrate,” he said.

“They’ve worked ever so hard during this journey, sacrificed a lot, put a tremendous amount of effort in to get this done and get this over the line.

“We also as a group have had some criticism along the way and we’ve been down at times along the way as well, so when you finally get this over the line the feeling is difficult to describe.”

Next up is Thursday’s first-leg Europa League showdown with Slavia Prague in the round of 16.