Should Steven Gerrard have kept Bruno Alves as he leads Parma to unlikely Serie A start?

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When Steven Gerrard arrived in the summer one of his first jobs at Rangers was too cut the deadwood. This included a host of players brought in by previous boss Pedro Caixinha. One of the players he gave the shove was Euro 2016 winner Bruno Alves.

Despite being an obvious class act Alves had an up-and-down Ibrox career which also saw him struggle with injury problems.

In July, the final 12 months of his contract were mutually terminated and Alves headed to Italy to join newly promoted Parma.

Based on the weekend, Rangers fans are probably wondering why.

Alves scored his second goal in the last three matches as he continues to thrive at the back for Parma. His goal was a tremendous free-kick which helped Parma to a 1-1 draw with Chievo Verona.

A regular for the Italian side and their captain this season, he has helped the Gialloblu to an excellent start to the season. They currently sit 10th in Serie A, surpassing many pre-season predictions.

Meanwhile, at Ibrox, Rangers have snapped up a host of new centre-backs. Conor Goldson, Nikola Katic, Joe Worrall and Gareth McAuley all arrived in the summer. At the weekend, Rangers drew 1-1 with Dundee. The pair of Goldson and Worrall hardly covered themselves in glory in this game.

Meanwhile, Alves is leading an unfancied side into a potential European push. On the one hand, it would appear Gerrard and Rangers made a mistake.

However, it is also not clear how much Alves really wanted to stay at Ibrox. He was also eating up wages in Glasgow and Rangers boss Gerrard clearly wanted to start looking forward with the arrivals of Goldson, Katic and Worrall.

Whether letting Alves go was a mistake, is down to an individual opinion. However, it is hard to imagine him playing as well at Rangers as he has been in Italy, where he has been made a marquee player.

Rangers fans will now just hope their current centre-backs can soon force Alves far into the rearview mirror.