Defoe will be upset by crushing Rangers blow that’s ‘difficult to take’ – Hutton
Alan Hutton has suggested Jermain Defoe may be “frustrated” at being dropped from the coaching staff at Rangers.
The former Gers defender and Rangers TV pundit, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, admitted the 39-year-old’s plans may have been thrown into disarray by the change of manager.
As quoted by Sky Sports (29th November), Giovanni van Bronckhorst confirmed Defoe would only be a player after a shakeup of the coaching staff.
The veteran striker was a player-coach under former boss Steven Gerrard.
Hutton insisted being dropped from the coaching team would be a kick in the teeth for the striker.
“He knows he’s coming to the end of his playing career,” Hutton told Football Insider’s Russell Edge.
“Whether it be under Gerrard or Van Bronckhorst, he wasn’t going to get a tonne of minutes on the pitch, I don’t think. Under the previous regime, I think it was better for him.
“He could play sparingly when needed but he could concentrate on the coaching. That’s the path that he obviously wants to go down.
“The new manager coming in, he has brought his own coaching staff, his own ideas. Defoe’s not part of that. I think that would be probably difficult to take for him.
“He knows deep down he probably isn’t going to play the amount of minutes he wants, coming to the end of his career. I think he will be a little bit frustrated with it.
“It’s maybe hampered his kind of future plans. At the end of the day, the manager’s made that decision and he has to just knuckle down there and focus on the playing side.”
Defoe joined Rangers on an initial 18-month loan from Bournemouth back in January 2019.
He is out of contract at the end of the season.
In other news, Rangers open talks over in-demand starlet ahead of January 1st.