Kris Commons believes Steven Gerrard would seriously consider leaving Rangers if the right opportunity presents itself after he was installed as the favourite to be Aston Villa's next boss.
Dean Smith was axed on Sunday and now the Liverpool legend is being backed by the bookies only weeks after he was among the candidates to become Newcastle's next manager.
Gerrard is highly regarded down south after securing a runaway Premiership title triumph last season and leading Rangers to the last 16 of the Europa League in the past two seasons.
Commons concedes a relegation battle with Villa isn't an obvious next step, but he reckons the financial state of play at Ibrox could come into his thinking if offered the job.
In his Daily Mail column, he said: "Gerrard later played down the (Newcastle) speculation, insisting that he was happy and settled at Rangers.
"But I believe there was enough in those initial comments to suggest he's open to the idea of moving on from Ibrox, should the right opportunity come along.
"Does a relegation scrap at Villa represent that opportunity? Well, on the face of it, you'd have to say probably not.
"Villa also don't have the same level of finance available to them as Newcastle. But they're not skint either.
"After selling Jack Grealish to Manchester City for £100million in the summer, Villa went and ploughed almost £90m of that windfall straight back into the squad.
"A combined outlay of just over £50m was sanctioned to sign striker Danny Ings from Southampton and winger Leon Bailey from Bayer Leverkusen.
"Almost £35m was spent on Argentinian playmaker Emi Buendia from Norwich City. The season prior to that, they forked out £30m to take Ollie Watkins from Brentford.
"Let's not kid ourselves, Rangers can only dream of spending that kind of money. Gerrard has already spoken this season of a need for greater investment to compete in Europe.
"What you also have to consider in all of this is the fact that Rangers posted a loss of £23.5m last week.
"As the manager, that doesn't inspire confidence that the club will be able to provide significant investment in the playing squad any time soon."
Commons also believes Villa are a bigger side than Leicester - the team who were able to tempt Celtic's all-conquering manager Brendan Rodgers back to the Premier League in 2019.
And the former Celtic playmaker reckons Gerrard is perhaps blessed to be among the candidates on the basis of his CV so far.
He added: "Listen, Villa are a big club. They are former European champions, have a brilliant stadium, and are extremely well-supported, home and away.
"They are a bigger club than Leicester. I know Leicester had a freak season when they won the league but, historically and traditionally, and in terms of the fanbase, Villa are by far and away the bigger club.
"So, if Brendan Rodgers can leave Celtic for Leicester City, Gerrard can most certainly leave Rangers for Villa. It's not out of the question.
"But Rodgers already had real pedigree as a manager. He established Swansea in the Premier League and came within a whisker of winning the title at Liverpool all achieved while playing brilliant attacking football.
"He then came to Scotland and was winning domestic Trebles year in, year out with Celtic as well as securing Champions League football.
"Gerrard hasn't done any of that. He's only won one trophy out of a possible nine across three seasons at Rangers.
"Presented with the chance of getting them into the Champions League, they blew it spectacularly against Malmo at the start of this season.
"So, when you look at it like that, he's actually fortunate to be getting linked with jobs like Newcastle and Villa.
"It's largely through his reputation, along with some decent results in the Europa League.
"If I was putting money on it, I reckon he will probably stay at Rangers. But stranger things have happened."
