Steven Gerrard’s ‘what if?’ Rangers moment as MK Dons chairman explains early pursuit of Liverpool legend

Steven Gerrard is the one that got away for MK Dons chairman Pete Winkleman and that will be hammered home when he watches the Rangers boss lift the Scottish Premiership trophy.

Winkleman made an audacious approach to make Gerrard his manager five years ago, shortly after the Liverpool legend had retired from playing after ending his career in the States with LA Galaxy.

Gerrard felt the offer to take the plunge into management had come too soon, and turned the offer down in order to take on a coaching role in Liverpool’s academy.

After two years at his boyhood club, he moved to Glasgow to begin the not insignificant task of reeling in Celtic.

He’s now done that and will deliver a first league title to Ibrox in a decade, which will naturally lead Winkleman to wonder what might have been.

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He told the Daily Record : “Steven Gerrard was absolutely my first choice for manager four years ago for the job and when I see him doing so well at Rangers now there is no doubt I ask myself ‘what if?…’

“And there is a little bit of pride and satisfaction in the fact he’s doing so well at Ibrox because it confirms to me that I was right in believing at the time that he would go on to become a successful manager.

“We spoke on more than one occasion at the time with the first conversations taking place over the phone when he was still in Los Angeles before returning to the UK.

“I was then grateful when Steven agreed to meet face to face and I can only compare the feeling to my dealings with Paul Ince in that he was someone who commanded total respect.

“But he was someone who you could tell had a real plan of what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go. He knew exactly how he planned to be successful, probably the same as when he was a player.

“Unfortunately for us the timing just wasn’t right and we missed out on Steven. We now have Russell Martin, a name familiar to Scottish football fans, and we’re happy with the progress we’re making.

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“Would we have got there quicker if we’d appointed Steven in 2016? We will never know but I’m convinced we would have been and his time at Rangers suggests that would have been the case

“We ended up appointing Robbie Neilson when we missed out on Steven as he had done a fantastic job at Hearts and has done a fantastic job at Dundee United and Hearts since returning for Scotland.

“Unfortunately for us it just didn’t work out for Robbie at MK Dons and I was so disappointed because he was such a nice guy but these things happen in football.

“It’s all about timing, taking on the right challenge at the right time, and that’s the thing about Steven Gerrard. He has made such good career choices and Rangers is another one.

“You have to give him credit because he took on a massive job in Rangers for his first crack at management but it looks like it’s been the right one because they are romping their way to their first league in a decade.”