By Mark Pirie

Copyright dailyrecord

Former Rangers boss Steven Gerrard would reportedly be open to replacing Russell Martin at Ibrox – if he was backed financially. The Liverpool icon has been persistently linked with a return to Ibrox having previously led the club to a 55th Scottish title during his stint in Glasgow. Before former Southampton boss Martin landed the Ibrox job in the summer Gerrard was on the shortlist of candidates for incoming owners Andrew Cavenagh and the 49ers alongside Martin and Davide Ancelotti . But Record Sport understands that at that stage Gerrard’s representatives told the Ibrox owners Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises that he was not ready to move his family back to the UK from the Middle East after his spell at Al-Ettifaq – and pulled out of the running. That was the second time the 49ers have shown an interest in the Liverpool icon – having previously been on the NFL investment wing’s radar at Leeds United before they appointed Daniel Farke And now former Manchester United chief Mick Brown has claimed that the murmurs south of the border are that Gerrard would be open to a sensational return – with Martin facing surging pressure after defeat to Sturm Graz in the Europa League. Martin has faced major fan pressure after a lacklustre start to the season – with supports anger now being vented at sporting director Kevin Thelwell and CEO Patrick Stewart. Brown told Football Insider: “He knows the club, knows the people, knows the fanbase, and he’d be able to go in there and immediately get everybody pulling in the same direction. “I hear he would welcome the chance to go back to Rangers , but I expect he will want assurances that he will be backed financially. “At the end of the day, you can point the finger at the manager or whoever, but that squad is not good enough to compete with Celtic. “Gerrard has good connections in the game and players want to play under him, we saw that in his first stint there, so he’ll want to bring in some of these players. “If he comes in at Rangers a bit closer to the window, he will expect to be allowed to strengthen the squad, because if not he might struggle to turn things around.” Michael Beale spent three years working alongside Gerrard as assistant boss at Ibrox before following him to Aston Villa in 2021. The Londoner was also the Ibrox board’s choice to take over when they sacked Gio van Bronckhorst in November 2022 – bringing him back to Glasgow just 10 months after he left alongside Gerrard. Similarly, Beale last just 10 months as the main man in the hot seat – but he has looked back on his time as a lieutenant and heaped praise on Gerrard’s “delegation” skills within the Light Blues. He told The Sports Agents : “When I worked with Steven, he was absolutely fantastic at delegation, and what did delegation give him? Time to manage the important bits and manage his energy. “At Rangers we were playing 66 games a season roughly because there was so many qualifiers in the Europa League at the time. “For that, the amount of media you have to do, I thought he selected really well. Gary McAllister played a big part in that as well. “He was senior to me, Steven and the rest of the staff and new a lot of people in the country and the way it all work. That was a big example of how to put a management team together.” One issues that supporters have over a potential Gerrard return is his disappointing spells at Villa and with Al-Ettifaq since leaving the Premiership behind. But Beale has tackled the time in Saudi head on and defended the boss – after being drafted in to coach the Pro League side for three months – explaining the difficulty of the divisions. He said: “The league is very, very interesting. You are allowed eight foreign players and two under-21 foreign players in your squad, so I think everybody spent a lot of money to build those squads. Now those squads are set. “The big clubs, it’s like going to play in Champions League games. Your Ittihad, your Nassr – you look at the moment, Ronaldo, Kingsley Coman and Joao Felix are in the same team – these are Champions League teams. But each league is really difficult. “But the heat – you can’t play with the same intensity that you can in Europe.”