{"id":66878,"date":"2025-08-13T16:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/66878\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T16:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:22:08","slug":"something-russell-martin-said-showed-rangers-have-come-far-from-the-days-of-clement-gaslighting-the-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/66878\/","title":{"rendered":"Something Russell Martin said showed Rangers have come far from the days of Clement gaslighting the support"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forget knee-jerk reactions, some punters have been so quick to jump to conclusions on the new boss they\u2019ve come close to booting their own noses<\/p>\n

13:39, 13 Aug 2025Updated 14:30, 13 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

Rangers manager Russell Martin talks to Nicolas Raskin <\/p>\n

The Rangers support might not like what they are seeing from Russell Martin<\/a>\u2019s new-look team but they can\u2019t really complain about what they are hearing from him.<\/p>\n

Six games in and bar one brief flash at home to Viktoria Plzen<\/a>, there\u2019s been little sign of the free-flowing, fluid style of play they\u2019ve been promised.<\/p>\n

Forget knee-jerk reactions, some punters have been so quick to jump to conclusions on the new boss they\u2019ve come close to booting their own noses.<\/p>\n

But there is no denying the fact that in some sections of a fanbase that was already sceptical of Martin\u2019s appointment there are supporters now edging towards outright hostility.<\/p>\n

Just take a look at the reactions on social media to the new gaffer\u2019s pre-match press conference here in Plzen on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

He was treated to the kind of comments Philippe Clement<\/a>, Michael Beale, Pedro Caixinha and Mark Warburton all got during the final days of their doomed regimes.<\/p>\n

Martin, however, has been in the job barely two and a half months and is already facing ludicrous calls for his head.<\/p>\n

Of course the fans have every right to be angry about the dismal start to the domestic campaign that already has their team playing catch up on Celtic<\/a> before parents have even had a chance to drag the kids around the back-to-school sales.<\/p>\n

But everyone knew – or certainly they should have – that overhauling a failing squad and implementing a new tactical approach was never going to be a quick fix.<\/p>\n

Sorting the issues that have dogged the club for over a decade requires patience but also honesty.<\/p>\n

And while the former is in short supply, at least Martin is refusing to sugarcoat the problems his new team has experienced so far.<\/p>\n

He was right to call out the individuals who ignored instructions on the opening day at Fir Park and correct again to drop them for the first leg against Plzen.<\/p>\n

His words got the desired reaction in that 3-0 win at Ibrox but shifting a culture that too often creaks at the first hint of pressure is a huge undertaking.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s these very issues that have allowed Celtic to rack up title after title while barely breaking a sweat.<\/p>\n

But Martin isn\u2019t shying away from the issues that need fixing or trying to protect the men who are failing to perform to the required standard.<\/p>\n

\"RussellRussell Martin during Rangers training session<\/p>\n

He made it immediately clear who he was referring to with his ego blast after the opening day draw at Motherwell when he dropped Nico Raskin and James Tavernier from his team.<\/p>\n

And he refused to shield those who failed to turn up in Plzen last night.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI said to the attacking guys: \u2018It’s not fair on the guys at the back to take the ball under such big pressure, Jack (Butland), he\u2019s finding you, it\u2019s not fair to just turn it over so cheaply\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t mind you losing the ball if you’re so aggressive, one v one, taking someone on, but the lack of care on the ball was too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a far cry from Clement trying to excuse a historic defeat to Queen\u2019s Park by prattling on about creating \u201c12 shots on goal\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was that type of patter that had fans accusing the Belgian of trying to gaslight the support.<\/p>\n

But so far Martin has realised there is no point trying to tell the supporters something different from what they\u2019ve seen with their own eyes.<\/p>\n

What they need to see now, however, is vast improvements.<\/p>\n

If Martin can\u2019t deliver it, he\u2019ll soon hear what the Light Blue legions at large have to say about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forget knee-jerk reactions, some punters have been so quick to jump to conclusions on the new boss they\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,13881,42484,9323,9329,561,82],"class_list":["post-66878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celtic-fc","tag-philippe-clement","tag-rangers-fc","tag-russell-martin","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}