Speaking to Football Insider, former Rangers defender Alan Hutton has offered his explanation as to why Steven Gerrard reportedly turned down a move to Birmingham City as manager recently.

The same outlet claimed that the former Liverpool midfielder was approached by the Blues in June as they look for a successor to Pep Clotet but that he knocked them back, reiterating his desire to keep working at Ibrox.

And, for Alan Hutton, it's little surprise that he did decide to stay with Rangers as he sees the men from St. Andrew's as a 'step back' from the Ibrox club.

The former full-back said:

"We all know he’s such a big name in the sport, he’s at a massive club at Rangers at the moment who play in Europe and have done excellently well so it doesn’t surprise me there’s going to be teams watching him and wanting him.

“The Birmingham one, I never thought that would be a goer, to be honest, it would be a step back to be honest. The real pressure will come when it’s a Premier League team who come in and want to take him.

“At the moment he’s building something at Rangers, he’s doing really well and I really think he wants to take Rangers to the next level and that’s to win trophies.”

The Verdict

Hutton makes a good point, if and when a Premier League club comes calling it is going to be hard for him to potentially turn down - depending on who it is - but until then he has got one of the biggest jobs in the UK already in terms of managing Rangers.

Getting them to win a league title after a period of Celtic domination would be a real achievement for Gerrard and his players, and that is what they will be aiming for next season after the campaign in Scotland was curtailed and Celtic were crowned champions.