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Michael Stewart has questioned where Rangers will find the money to finance Steven Gerrard's transfer ambition.

And he believes the club are becoming increasingly desperate in their bid to stop Celtic winning 10-in-a-row.

Gerrard called for the club to back him in this summer's market ahead of Sunday's 2-1 derby defeat to the Hoops at Parkhead, which put their Glasgow rivals on the brink of an eighth consecutive Premiership title.

Rangers posted losses of over £14million in November 2018 after investing heavily to bring Gerrard to the club and fund his subsequent squad rebuild.

The club will receive extra funds from their participation in this season's Europa League group stage, seeing income soar by £5.2m in January.

But Stewart insists it may already be too late for them to claw back the gap on Celtic.

He told BBC Sportsound: "I'm sure if you asked any manager in the country they'd want more funds, but the fundamental issue is where do those funds come from?

"There's no magic money tree round Ibrox that they can, all of a sudden, create some money from and give it to Steven Gerrard.

"The club lost an astronomical sum of money last year, they invested heavily in Gerrard and his squad.

(Image: PA)

"I imagine when the financial year is finished and the accounts eventually come out it would be very interesting to see that extra money that's been generated from the Europa League, whether it amounts to being able to balance out this extra expenditure.

"If you spend more money it puts you further in the red, OK you make some extra money (from the Europa League).

"I would imagine that extra expenditure would only be covered by the progress in the Europa League.

"You're still left with a deficit. If you're talking about the next season that's coming, to invest again...

"I've experienced it myself at Hearts when Vladimir Romanov was continuing to pump money into the club, there is a finite amount of money, it can't continue indefinitely.

"There's this blind panic of trying to stop 10-in-a-row, but is the infrastructure in place to enable the club to do that?

"Looking further back, when Rangers started again in the bottom division, that was when they really needed good long-term strategy in place.

"But now it all seems a littler bit desperate and they're chucking money at it to try and solve it. And perhaps they're just too late to the game.

"The question has to be asked of them, 'where does it come from?' It's the only thing they can do, trying to finance Steven Gerrard's wishes, but where does it come from?"