Steven Gerrard’s tenure in charge of Glasgow Rangers will go down fondly with the Ibrox faithful, despite his acrimonious exit.
He led the Ibrox side to the Premiership title in 2020/2021 – their first in a decade – while restoring the club’s status in European competition, reaching the last 16 of the Europa League twice during his reign.
His forays into the transfer market were hit-and-miss, however. despite bringing Connor Goldson, Ryan Kent, and Kemar Roofe to the Light Blues, he also signed Eros Grezda, Umar Sadiq, and Juninho Bacuna.
He also sold players before really giving them a chance, with Matt Polster being a key example and although he may not have gone on to become a star in the team, his displays since leaving Glasgow have proved Gerrard may have made a blunder over the American gem.
Did Rangers sell Matt Polster too early?
Signed from Chicago Fire in January 2019, Polster was expected to deputise for captain James Tavernier at right back, while also able to fill in at defensive midfield if so required.
The form of Tavernier plus his incredible resilience to injury meant Polster was limited to just ten first-team appearances for the Gers, with the club never really seeing his full potential.
Just 18 months after arriving, the player was moving back across the pond, this time to MLS side New England Revolution for £400k and he went on to prove the Englishman wrong during his first few seasons back in America.
83 appearances, four goals, and winning the 2021 MLS Supporters Shield have certainly proven that Polster’s time at the Ibrox side was cut short far too soon and he should have been deployed in midfield more often.
His performances have even led to high praise from the media, with MLS insider Tom Bogert lauding the 29-year-old machine as “one of the league’s best DMs” since moving from Rangers and he has managed to rediscover the form that led to Gerrard bringing him to Glasgow in the first place.
There is obviously no guarantee that he would be a regular fixture in the starting XI for the club had he remained in Scotland for longer, yet just ten appearances were hardly enough to prove his worth.
Meanwhile, over in America, Polster was a top-eight performer for the Revs’ across both 2021 and 2022, via Sofascore, displaying some sort of consistency as they took home the title in the former campaign.
The former Liverpool captain clearly suffered a blunder by moving the American midfielder on too soon.
Who knows, he may have followed in the footsteps of his compatriots Claudio Reyna and Maurice Edu as Americans who enjoyed excellent stints at Rangers.
