Alan Hutton has questioned the mentality of Wes Foderingham after the recently departed Rangers number one’s revelations during an interview with Open Goal.
Speaking to Football Insider, Hutton expressed his surprise at the keeper’s comments and his reaction to how Steven Gerrard spoke to him on his arrival at the club.
So what has Hutton said?
When asked to reflect on Foderingham’s interview, and in particular his reaction to Gerrard saying that he “wasn’t his type of person”, the former Gers man said:
“It was interesting reading the comments – I just wonder if it was more about Gerrard trying to spur him on to see what he was made of, a little shot at him to see how he’d react to it.
“I know how I’d react if that was me, it would make me want to work even harder to prove him wrong so I think it was maybe a case of that, he’s taken it to heart and didn’t quite understand the comment.
“Maybe it’s gone the other way rather than trying to show him what he’s capable of. It’s one of those things, it happens a lot in football, people try to test you and see what you’re about mentally, see if you’re prepared.
“I was surprised reading the comments, I thought he would maybe concentrate on the football side of it and maybe talk about it at a later date.”
So is Hutton correct?
A telling fact is how different Hutton perceives Gerrard’s comments compared to Foderingham, and on a basic level, the contrast can be seen in their respective trophy cabinets and the standard of football that they have played throughout their careers.
Hutton’s reaction that he would “work harder” is the total opposite to Foderingham who obviously saw it as a lack of respect rather then using it as motivation to prove the new manager wrong.
Gerrard knows that he has enough good quality footballers in his side but needs to fine tune his squad to include players with genuine quality and perhaps more importantly – a winning mentality – by signing Allan McGregor to replace Foderingham, it was a clear upgrade on what is needed to restore Rangers to the top of the Scottish game.