Channel 4 reporter goes to war with Rangers over Gerrard interview snub

Rangers have found themselves embroiled in a war of words with a Channel 4 news reporter after manager Steven Gerrard reportedly snubbed an interview.

By The Newsroom Wednesday, 7th November 2018, 9:27 am Updated Wednesday, 7th November 2018, 9:33 am

Ciaran Jenkins tweeted on Tuesday that he’d been scheduled to speak with the former Liverpool star on camera about the forthcoming Amazon documentary, but that Gerrard never showed.

Sign up to our daily newsletter The i newsletter cut through the noise Sign up Thanks for signing up! Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting...

In a lengthy thread, Jenkins claimed that a personal staffer had told the crew he couldn’t ask any questions relating to Neil Lennon and sectarianism in Scottish football. He also said they were left waiting for hours without anyone telling them Gerrard wasn’t going to show.

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard. Picture: SNS

He added: “Steven Gerrard’s representative told me in no uncertain terms he would not talk about the attacks on Neil Lennon or the current discussion around sectarianism in Scottish football. It was suggested I ask him in general terms what it’s like to be manager of Rangers.”

The Ibrox club were said to be unhappy that Jenkins had insinuated the topic of sectarianism directed at the former Celtic boss was the reason for the interview being cancelled.

A spokesperson told the Daily Record: “It is simple - it was agreed that any interview around the Steven Gerrard documentary would be predominantly film focused.

“There was an interview scheduled for today but it became clear the journalist’s questions were not in keeping with this agreement, so the interview did not go ahead.

“Steven Gerrard is accommodating and wide ranging in his dealings with the media and it is not true to suggest today’s interview was cancelled because of questions relating to another manager.”

Jenkins insisted this was “flatly untrue” as there was no “agreement in advance on questions to ask”.

Another report in the Scottish Sun stated that Jenkins was named as the interviewer only at the last moment after a colleague became unavailable, which was another reason the Rangers boss pulled out.

Again, though, Jenkins took to Twitter to refute that side of the story.

He wrote: “This is 100 per cent false and actually quite amusing someone would bother to make this stuff up.”