Is Steven Gerrard planning his Ibrox exit already?

No,  it’s not the have you seen him win the league question. It’s has he been seen at all? – With a contractual thought in mind.

Neil Lennon is leading from the front as Celtic move from celebrating their league win to preparing for their 10-in-a-row challenge. He’s very visible in the media talking about players, transfer window, return to training, preparation etc. The story is very different when it comes to his counterpart, Steven Gerrard.

Rangers haven’t said much in public after the league was ended. Their flow of protest statements stopped. Does anyone recall seeing Gerrard (or anyone else from the club) doing the dignified thing and congratulating the winners?

What about the news of a new kit supplier and retail deal with Castore? There was a written quote from Gerrard adding his endorsement. The sort of thing a PR team rather than an individual writes, but nothing visible from him otherwise.

Or the Hagi and Calvin Bassey signings? Again, a written apparent quote of the usual words re pleased to sign in the press releases, but that’s all.

What about on the Rangers web site and news releases?  Stewart Robertson the chairman has obviously regathered the toys he threw out the pram in May and calmed down to record a podcast for fans in the week. Gerrard’s voice provides the usual few second long prerecorded introduction to the podcast. But he didn’t feature or get a mention.

Maybe newspaper interviews then? Lots of ex players have been turned out for their views, although whether anyone is ever impressed by Alex Rae’s musings or Barry Ferguson’s worries about chubby Morelos remains to be seen. We have seen moonbeams about building developments on the car park and sporting director Ross Wilson announcing that there will be announcements. He did say he and Gerrard talk regularly, you’d expect that to be said. But did anyone see or hear Gerrard in all those or anything else? How odd!

Maybe he’s still in lockdown on Merseyside. Maybe, he’s been away somewhere and in 14 days isolation. Maybe he’s not needed on site in Glasgow for preparations. Maybe he is in town but keeping a low profile. Maybe there’s an alternative PR approach which is churning out content from everyone else and not Gerrard. Maybe his WiFi is down or he can’t book his slot on Zoom on the family schedule. It’s a lot of maybe’s for an individual and club so often in the media.

Perhaps this is all perfectly normal and as we see a return to training, subject to testing, we’ll see Gerrard emerge into the usual spotlight and fulfilling his contractual obligations as manager.

There was speculation in April when Rangers announced a 3 month deferral of wages for players and management team that perhaps some individuals had negotiated agreements for release from contracts if salaries weren’t paid up at the end of the deferral period, later in June. Blogger and journalist Phil Macgiollabhain shared then some information he’d heard from a private source close to the Ibrox club about that speculation.

"“Wage deferral for 3 months, plus if issues after that the players can leave for a reduced fee. Gerrard can leave with no fee for his services required to be paid to Rangers. Gerrard also gets a lump sum net payment of £1m if this goes ahead.”"

Interesting times ahead then for the Rangers and their attempt at somehow stopping Neil Lennon’s trophy-winning machine from 10IAR.