adminRangers’ billionaire board ‘won’t get pushed around’ on Russell Martin’s future
But head coach is only ‘one hiccup’ away from the edge and may need long unbeaten run
Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh and his fellow directors will not get pushed into pulling the trigger on embattled Rangers head coach Russell Martin, but the 39-year-old is only one “hiccup” away from potentially losing his job, according to former Ibrox player.
Many Rangers fans are demanding that Martin, who was only appointed at the start of June, is removed from his position after the club’s worst start to a Premiership campaign in 47 years.
Rangers are currently eighth in the league table, nine points adrift of leaders Hearts, and only recorded their first win on Sunday against Livingston thanks to a stoppage-time goal from Max Aarons. Despite the late victory, supporters sang anti-Martin chants and are calling for change.
Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh watches on during last week’s 1-0 defeat by Genk. | SNS Group
Chairman Cavenagh, who flew over from his US base earlier this month to witness first-hand the situation at Rangers, has stood by Martin alongside 49 Enterprises supremo Paarag Marathe, sporting director Kevin Thelwell and chief executive Patrick Stewart. Despite the white-hot pressure on the ex-Saints boss, Thomson does not feel the health insurance tycoon and his partners will be bullied into sacking the head coach.
“Am I surprised that the board hasn’t made a change? Not really because the owners are billionaires, they’re not going to be influenced if they think they’ve done the right thing,” said Thomson. “They didn’t become the successful people they are by being pushed around.
“But the bottom line is the Rangers fanbase is very powerful and when you have thousands of people outside Ibrox protesting or the lowest attendance for a lot of years at a European game, people have to take notice. You quickly lose money. People always told me guys as successful as this are usually so instinctive and when things go wrong they change it quickly.
“So far you could argue that hasn’t been the case because I think if you asked the majority of Rangers fans, they would want to see Russell and his staff go. Hopefully they can try to turn the tide and get some sort of run going – I say this through humanity. If the next hiccup is just around the corner then I’d fear the worst might happen.”
Only a long unbeaten run will do for Rangers fans
Thomson believes Martin will have to set Rangers on a long unbeaten run to win over his large array of detractors.
“The hardest part is when you still get the result in the end and the fans are still going for the manager,” continued Thomson. “That’s hard to see and I think if you have any humanity in you at all you’d find that tough to watch.
“How you change that as a manager or a staff? I don’t know. Winning matches is all you can do but it will be a long, long way to go to turn things around. It has been one win out of six in the league and a slow start in Europe, so it’s not going to be just two, three or four games to change fans’ opinions.
“It would have to be 20-odd games of winning and whether the group of players is capable of doing that we don’t know.
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