Rangers have hit back at claims that Steven Gerrard refused to speak to a reporter because he anticipated questions about Neil Lennon and sectarianism in Scottish football
Channel 4 reporter Ciaran Jenkins has gone on a lengthy Twitter tirade venting his frustration about being stood up for an interview with Gerrard on Tuesday afternoon.
Jenkins arrived to speak to the Rangers manager ahead of the release of an Amazon Prime documentary about Gerrard and his Liverpool career but was left with nobody to talk to after the Scottish club expressed concerns about the interview.
Jenkins had hoped to bring up the subject of Neil Lennon's recent comments about sectarianism in Scotland after the Hibernian boss was hit with a coin during the Edinburgh derby last week.
Lennon insists he is regularly targeted with abuse from terraces in Scotland for the simple reason that he is an Irish Catholic who used to play for Celtic.
Jenkins wanted to tie the ongoing Lennon situation into the abuse Gerrard used to get from rival supporters but the interview never took place.
https://twitter.com/C4Ciaran/status/1059831858928799754
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Rangers have hit back at Jenkins' version of events by claiming that the interviewer changed the direction of the line of questioning on the day of the scheduled sit-down.
A club spokesperson told
The Scottish Sun: "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."
It was also claimed that the Glasgow club had been expecting a different journalist to interview Gerrard before Jenkins showed up as a late replacement but Jenkins has refuted the claims made in Rangers' statement.
https://twitter.com/C4Ciaran/status/1059965466016468994
https://twitter.com/C4Ciaran/status/1059909157254500353
