Rumour Mongering: Steven Gerrard Wants to Permanently Sign Loanees

The Rangers manager wants to keep Ovie Ejaria and Ryan Kent. Good luck with that.

So, there’s this bloke managing Rangers called Steven Gerrard. Don’t know if you’ve heard of him.

Anyway, and stop me if you’ve heard this one before, Gerrard has fairly strong ties to Liverpool, and as such signed Ovie Ejaria and Ryan Kent on loan. Being promising young talents who would be unlikely to get first team minutes at Anfield, this made sense, with (apologies to any readers in Scotland) the lower standard of the Scottish Premiership likely to be an excellent level for them at this point in their careers. Gerrard and his coaching staff (largely former Liverpool employees) can develop these two, help Rangers get some good results, and the players will return to Anfield having improved. Sounds like a plan?

Gerrard, apparently, has some higher ambitions.

“If you’re asking me if I’d want [them] for next year, I’d sign [them] right now”, The Scotsman report Gerrard as saying. Speaking more specifically about his relationship with Liverpool, the Rangers manager states that he’s “still in Jurgen’s good books for the foreseeable future and Liverpool keep winning, so maybe there is some scope, but we rate them very highly”.

This could be nothing. It might simply be Gerrard’s attempt to publicly back his players, and say that of course they’re great additions that he’d love to have with him full time. Of course, if there are serious discussions, this would be a clear indication that Klopp does not expect Kent and Ejaria to ever become first team options at Liverpool. Which would of course be a disappointment, but sometimes these things happen.

Something there can be no doubt of, however, is that if Klopp likes these players, they will not be sold to Rangers. The Glasgow club are not especially wealthy by the standards of English football, so could not afford any player who was seriously considered an asset at Liverpool. So one has to imagine this is not likely to pan out for Gerrard if his loanees are as good as he says they are.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com