Fear Of The New Celtic Is Behind Gerrard’s Urge To Get Back Across The Border.

So will he or won’t he? That is the question.

The media down south thinks it is a done deal and so do the bookies.

Right now Gerrard is an astonishing 1-12, which is a close to being a sure thing as you are ever going to get.

Martinez is 12-1. Lampard is 14-1. Terry is 18-1 and then you start getting into the twenties.

As a guy who likes a bet I can tell you what that means; the bookies think it’s already over.

There is probably a lot of inside information doing the rounds down there which accounts for those odds. The certainty with which some of the outlets down south are predicting this tells you that Gerrard’s own people are being quite open about his wanting to talk to Villa.

And if he opens those talks I have no doubt he’ll hear enough to make him take the leap. He knows it’s the kind of job that will give him a bigger platform than Ibrox, but one without the need to achieve all that much at first. He will see it as his stepping stone to Anfield.

Because really, what’s he got to look forward to up here? Celtic are far ahead of where our critics and cynics thought we would be.

January will see us grow stronger still. In the meantime, the Ibrox club has a tough run of games ahead of them and the near certainty of coming out of the next window weaker than they went into it … and with us breathing down their necks.

He has hit the glass ceiling at Ibrox. Things are, now, as good as they are going to get for him and they will probably never get this good again. The fear of Ange and this Celtic team will have been growing in him for weeks, and watching us go away to Ferencvaros and win so convincingly will have done nothing for his sleepless nights.

One trophy in nine. He knows his club’s form offers no guarantees of improving that. One trophy in ten would be a ghastly statistic considering the money he has had to spend, and one trophy in twelve, which looms in his future if he stays … disastrous.

Aston Villa is the right club for his level. A low lying struggler but with plenty of money to get out of the relegation zone.

Not a club that will win things.

Not a club that will make a lot of difference to his career path.

There will be more in his personal wage packet, yes, and he will be closer to his family but let’s be honest, we know that this is a guy who’s running.

If he believed that he could deliver another title here he’d not give that up. But he has looked across the city, seen what Ange is doing and realised that in such poor form, and with divisions at every level at Ibrox – more on that later, I assure you – that this is the time to leap off the burning deck.

Ange has seen him off the premises although we’re still four points behind.

Gerrard sees what we see; he sees the writing on the wall.