Michael Beale has revealed the moment that confirmed to him that Steven Gerrard was an elite manager.
The Rangers boss guided his team to a first Scottish Premiership title in a decade this season and went the entire league campaign unbeaten in the process.
However, Beale saw that the Liverpool legend was destined for success in his first season at Ibrox.
Down to nine-men away to Russian outfit FC Ufa in a Europa League qualifier, the Gers fought back to earn a crucial draw, and it was what Gerrard said in the dressing room afterwards that blew Beale away and convinced him his boss was destined for the very top.
He told the Training Ground Guru podcast: "There have been numerous moments but right at the start in the first season, and we played a huge game away at Ufa in qualifying for Europe.
"It was between a £10-15million game.
"In that game we went down to nine players, and how he summarised that game at the end was fantastic.
"Walking into that changing room, everyone was on such a high as you can imagine.
"But he spoke to the players about something that had happened seven days before, around standards.
"I just thought at that moment 'wow'.
He must have had that in his mind that he was picking the right moment, and it was such a fantastic thing.
"I won't share the exact words, but he spoke about standards that he was unhappy about the week before, and those things weren't going to be allowed if you were going to be in the special environment we were in.
"In that moment he showed a level of communication in the group that I though was very elite."
