Steven Gerrard claimed to have fixed Rangers roof while the sun was still shining but it caved in against Celtic

It's nine months since Steven Gerrard waxed lyrical about fixing roofs while the sun was shining and not waiting for problems to appear.

The then Rangers manager - standing before us as a champion to be fair - was talking about the early arrivals of Scott Wright, Jack Simpson, Fashion Sakala and Nnamdi Ofoborh to bolster the ranks for their title defence.

It was a brilliant soundbite. Gerrard was never short of them to his credit.

But it’s maybe just as well the 55-delivering boss is now away inspecting the slates at Aston Villa.

Because on Wednesday night that roof he was talking about at Ibrox looked like it was about to well and truly cave in on Rangers.

Blown-away by a hurricane of intensity from a Celtic side driven by a new manager with nine new signings in the starting XI compared to a Rangers side containing just a single starter who wasn’t part of last year’s title triumph.

Gerrard’s vow about “it’s always about fixing the roof when the sun is shining rather than waiting for problems” has been turned right on its head.

The truth of the matter is Rangers recruitment for the past three windows has been nowhere near good enough and right now looks like it’s set to cost them their title and the £40m Champions League group stage spot that goes with it.

That criticism may be premature on this winter version especially after they blew the top off deadline day with the arrival of Aaron Ramsey on loan.

Fair play to deadline day and Rangers on that one - it’s proper theatre and the arrival of Ramsey is certainly box office.

But is the Welsh wizard - deemed not fit enough to take the banch against Celtic - going to be enough to transform Gio van Bronckhorst’s side for the 14-game run-in?

Put the two rivals’