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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
National
Stewart Wilson

Ex-Rangers man in explosive Martin criticism as he makes Steven Gerrard claim

Stewart has blasted Russell Martin for the manner in which he is currently handling things at Rangers.

The Ibrox club dropped to 10th in the Scottish Premiership at the weekend following a 2-0 home defeat to Heart of Midlothian.

And Stewart, who made 33 appearances in light blue, has slammed Martin for consistently shifting the blame to his players.

Indeed, he compared things to when Steven Gerrard was at the helm, and how he'd always shoulder responsibility for poor displays.

"Gerrard would never do that," Stewart told RecordSport. "When he spoke to the media, he’d always take the blame.


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"If you got beaten or had a bad game, he’d keep what he had to say in-house.

"He’d say what he had to say to us in the changing room and then say, ‘I'm going to the press and I'll take the blame.’

"He did that even after a ridiculous display like the one at home to Hamilton just before Covid.

"Steven would always defend his players as much as he possibly could. That was the kind of man he was.

"As players, that was great to hear, especially when you consider everything he’d done in the game."

With Rangers amassing four points from their opening five league games and losing 9-1 to Club Brugge in a Champions League play-off, Stewart reckons Martin has made the players worse.

"For me, he knows it's the tactics," he continued. "But he doesn’t want to hold his hands up and say they aren't working. And clearly they’re not working.

"He's made an impossible thing happen. All these players look 10 times worse than what they are. It's virtually impossible for somebody to actually do that.

"He's made every player worse. And there's good players in there, by the way. I'm telling you, there's a team there.

"But I just don’t see any way back for Martin as manager. No chance. No way in hell. I just can’t see any positivity.

"I can’t see what he's actually trying to do."

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