Steven Gerrard has warned his Rangers squad there are no room for passengers moving forward, as reported by The Daily Record.
The paper say players such as Eros Grezda, Kyle Lafferty and Borna Barisic are surplus to requirements after a disappointing season, with Gerrard making it clear that if he decides they are not good enough to play they will be firmly stuck on the fringes of his squad.
As quoted by The Record, the Ibrox boss said:
If there are players I don’t need, it’s easy to address that. I’ll show the players an honesty and respect. If there’s someone who I don’t feel I can give happiness to, in terms of game time, then I’ll tell him. Then the decision’s out of my hands.
It’s up to the player whether he wants to hang around here or whether he wants to go and play football, which is his profession.
It’s easy for me. I’ll get them in the office one-to-one and say, ‘Look, this is the reality.’ I’ll be respectful and tell them as early as I can. In an ideal situation, they’ll go and find the right club for them to be happy.
But I can’t have people hanging around my squad being a drain or energy-sapper within the group.
My squad will be tight, small and full of people who will be playing in games and contributing to our success.
Clearly Gerrard is not messing around when it comes to this summer’s transfer window.
Aiming to make the squad lean, mean and ready to compete, it sounds like plenty of players will be heading out of Ibrox over the next few months and that should help both morale at the club and reduce the wage bill.
Unfortunately players like Grezda and Lafferty simply haven’t contributed anything productive to our season and we can’t have decent paid players not even managing to make the substitute’s bench.
Hopefully our recruitment this summer is far more focused than it was last year.
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