Besiktas plot shock move for Rangers boss Steven Gerrard – Turkish reports

Steven Gerrard

The former Liverpool midfielder took over at Ibrox in the summer of 2018 and has started the new season strongly.

Gerrard led the Gers into the Europa League group stage for the second successive season, and last weekend’s thumping 5-0 win over Hamilton Academical sent them two points clear of rivals Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

But reports in Turkey suggest that Besiktas could make a shock move to appoint the Anfield legend.

The Istanbul club’s president Fikret Orman announced two weeks ago that he would step down from the role and the new chief will be named next Sunday.

beIN Sports Turkey reports that the new president could sack current manager Abdullah Avci after a terrible start to the 2019/20 campaign.

Besiktas have picked up just eight points from their first seven league games, leaving them 12th in the Super Lig table, six points behind early pace-setters Alanyaspor.

They haven’t fared any better in the Europa League, beginning their group stage campaign with defeats to Slovan Bratislava and Wolves.

According to journalist Mehmet Demirkol (as reported by Sport Witness), presidential candidate Ahmet Nur Cehi is weighing up the option of replacing Avci with Gerrard.

Cehi, who is said to be a strong contender to take the presidency, has discussed the possibility of making a move to poach Gerrard from Ibrox.

Sergen Yalcin, the current Yeni Malatyaspor boss, has been named as another potential replacement for Avci.

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Alasdair Mackenzie is a freelance journalist based in Rome, and a FourFourTwo contributor since 2015. When not pulling on the FFT shirt, he can be found at Reuters, The Times and the i. An Italophile since growing up on a diet of Football Italia on Channel 4, he now counts himself among thousands of fans sharing a passion for Ross County and Lazio.