FRIDAY is the day that Steven Gerrard and the Rangers fans have been waiting for ever since he put pen-to-paper on the deal to become manager.

I am sure he will have been counting down the days in recent weeks and he will walk into the club with plenty on his mind, and plenty to do.

Steven decided not to sit in the stand for the final couple of games last season and he had other commitments with Liverpool and BT Sport.

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But in his mind he will have been thinking about Rangers all the time. As a manager, you have things spinning around your head every minute of every day.

He may not have been at Rangers since his press conference, but I can guarantee his thoughts would have been on the job and how he was going to approach the first days and the first week.

It is all about preparation. You need to have plans in place for pre-season and the first couple of days you are just setting things out and drawing up your team, your targets, your opposition, everything.

Preparation and planning is key. You are on the phone all the time and you are looking to get through as much as possible so that when the players come in everything is sorted for them.

You can then spend as much time as possible forging a relationship with them and then it is down to business on the training park and you are looking ahead to the matches.

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Steven was the main man at Liverpool for so many years, even though he wasn’t the manager. So I think this will be a really natural transition for him.

Yes, he is now the boss. But he is still leading a dressing room and in that regard it is the same as he did for years and years at Anfield.

That, for me, is one of his key attributes. As soon as he talks, the players will listen and he will have that respect.

It might be a little bit strange for him at the start, but I don’t have any worries about how he will cope when he officially starts at Rangers.

It is only natural that you take bits from managers that you have worked under, and he has had a host of really top managers at Liverpool and England over his career.

He will learn from them but he will also want to make his own stamp and do things his own way. He won’t copy anybody, he will have his own identity.

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If you look at the experience he has had around him in terms of managers, he couldn’t have asked for a better insight into how things should be done.

One of the main things that will determine if he is a success or not is how well he moves in the transfer market this summer and what players he can bring to Ibrox.

Recruitment is going to be key for Rangers and, with Scott Arfield, Allan McGregor and Jamie Murphy on board, Steven will be keen to get more deals done and get more of his targets in as quickly as possible.

He will know who he wants to bring into the club, but he will also have a good idea of who he doesn’t want to work with and getting players out is important for Rangers.

There will need to be a turnover of players but it is difficult to move players on if they have time left on their contracts. They will either need to be paid up or deals will need to be done to get them another club.

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Steven will have watched games and looked at stats from this season, and maybe even the season before, so he will know what the squad is like and what he is inheriting.

For those that he doesn’t fancy, I think it is too late for them to change his mind. They will be surplus to requirements.

He will have his targets, he will have an idea of what he wants the team to look like and anyone that doesn’t fit will be told they have no future there.

It will take money to get players in, but it could also take a bit of cash from the board to be able to get players out as well. It is a transitional period for the team and the squad and it will take time to get it right.

If Steven is bringing in six, seven, eight signings, you need to give them an opportunity to gel so that they can come together and be ready for the start of the Premiership.

It is all about that first game for Rangers and the preparations for that will begin from the moment that Steven and Gary McAllister walk through the doors.

Rangers will go to Spain for a training camp next month and I am sure Steven would like to get as many new players on board as possible before they leave.

The quicker you can get players in, the quicker they can gel and the quicker everyone gets on the same page regarding the style of the team and the standards he will set.

It isn’t that long since the final whistle at Easter Road that brought an end to last season but everyone at Rangers is now looking forward to next term, and rightly so.