Watched Russell Martin’s interview. Officially the first Rangers manager I’ve thought, “You know what, you’re a complete ‘banker’ (spelling)”.
All of the Glasgow Rangers managers in my lifetime have been different characters and while some have been better or worse in a footballing sense, they always came across as decent enough guys trying to do their best for the club, first and foremost. Even the bad ones in a footballing sense seemed to treat the club with the respect you’d expect.
Until now. The arrogance of this man. It’s so abundantly clear, this is about him before anything else, the club for him is well in the distance.
No Russell, it was nothing to do with your middle parting, the fans who thought you were a bad idea had simply seen your football before. Seen your record as a manager, and had a strong view it wouldn’t work out. And here we are, 8 games in, heading in the wrong direction and it’s everyone’s fault but yours!
So far Russell, you have:
1. Blamed the players
2. Blamed the fans
3. Blamed the club
4. Blamed the timescale
And all inside the first month of the season.
You’ve disrespected the traditions of the role – whether you think it’s funny or not, some people think these are important. I’m not so fussed personally about what it says about his managerial ability, but if I stepped into such a role with his track record, I’d suck it up rather than find excuses to do what I want over respecting those traditions. You haven’t earned that level of arrogance.
We’ve had a lot of ups and downs over the years. I was fortunate enough to follow the club since the 80s, so had the highs of Souness and Walter. I’ve also had the lows of League 2 and ‘The journey’.
This is genuinely the hardest it’s ever been for me as a Rangers fan, right now. I’ve never before even entertained thoughts like, ‘Maybe it would be better if we lost to St Mirren and Celtic heavily so this guy maybe gets gone’. As an individual, he’s made a lifelong Rangers fan think it would be better for his side to lose for the first time.
1. The football is atrocious to watch
2. There’s nothing suggesting the same style of play the last 4 managers have tried is going to work in the SPFL.
3. We actually have good players, but they look bang average under this regime
4. The fans aren’t happy and starting to split which is never good
5. The manager looks incapable of stepping out of his own hubris
6. Our best players don’t appear to like him or his style at all (corroborated by ‘insiders’)
7. To top it off, he’s now coming across as an unlikeable, arrogant person who refuses to change, even in the face of failure, so has started having a pop at everyone else!
I’m sure plenty will disagree, which is fine, but I suspect I’m not on my own in now completely being switched off to Russell Martin on every level. He hasn’t earned the esteem in which he clearly holds himself and his footballing ideas.