Sutton is someone well versed in the intensity of the Old Firm rivalry and he sums up Gerrard’s priority in one word – “win”.
Gerrard was a Merseyside derby specialist, winning 16 out of 30 league games against Everton, losing only four while scoring nine goals.
This, however, will be a totally different experience as a manager starting from a low bar, with Rangers currently a very obvious second best to Celtic.
“I think people who don’t spend time up in Scotland are slightly ill-informed,” Sutton told BBC Sport. “They don’t understand the environment in and around Glasgow. It is brutal.
“It is all right people saying he may come in and improve Rangers. He may well do that but the fans, while they want the team to improve and develop, want to finish above Celtic. Second isn’t good enough and that is the biggest issue.
“You just don’t get time. Mark Warburton came up with a big reputation – destroyed at Rangers. Pedro Caixinha – a big experiment. Gamble backfires and reputation destroyed.
“Glasgow isn’t a city where you can sit pretty, develop and chug along nicely adrift of your other rivals. It isn’t like that and for people down south to think that is acceptable and that is the way it goes, they are misguided.
“It turns so quickly. It doesn’t take much and this has been Rangers’ issue. It is either triumph or disaster. They get so high and then so low.”
And it is against this backdrop where Steven Gerrard is putting his reputation, as a rookie manager at least, on the line.
