It’s a bold strategy from our clubs to try and outdo one another in riling up their fanbases with their managerial appointments, but they aren’t half giving it a go. So far, this has been the ‘hold my beer’ summer in Scottish football.
With the greatest of respect to new Kilmarnock manager Stuart Kettlewell, new Dundee head coach Steven Pressley and prospective new Rangers head coach Russell Martin, who may all turn out to be inspired appointments, describing the reaction from their respective supports to news of their hiring as going down like cold sick is a little disrespectful to tepid vomit.
At best, these appointments have inspired the odd ‘well, let’s see how he does.’ Mostly though, they have sent their fanbases into tailspins of despair six weeks or so before a ball is even kicked in anger.
As the bold Pedro found out to his cost though, with such brave calls can come grave consequences, and a short rope should things not get off to the best of starts.
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At Ibrox, given the buoyancy still present due to the recent takeover and the good feeling towards the new owners, there may have been an argument that there would be a longer period of grace for the incoming manager than might usually be the case. But for Martin, who hasn’t so much split opinion as unified it against his appointment, that seems unlikely.
This is also the first major call that the club’s new leadership have made, and so will be the first opportunity for them and their decision-making to be judged by the Rangers fanbase.
They will no doubt have done their due diligence and believe he is the right man to spearhead this new era at Ibrox, but it is hard to shake the feeling that not only will Martin start on the back foot because of fan opinion, but that this news has taken a little of the wind out of Rangers sails just as the support were whipping themselves into a frenzy about the future.
Playing devil’s advocate though, while Martin might not be the sexiest name, and while his record at Southampton last season was also extremely underwhelming, with one win and two draws from his 13 matches before he got the bullet, you can also at least see some logic behind the choice when compared to the other runners and riders.
Is Martin, for instance, with over 250 games under his belt as a manager with MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton, any more of a risk than Davide Ancelotti, with a grand total of none? And has Steven Gerrard’s record since leaving Rangers (or much of his record while at the club) offered any sort of evidence that he would be a success a second time around?
I would argue no, on both counts. And until last season as he led a Southampton team that clearly wasn’t up to the level into the English Premier League, Martin’s record at St Mary’s was actually pretty good.
He is hardly the first manager to have built a side that works it's way out of the English Championship but is not quite up to the EPL, and he won’t be the last, but while he copped flak for being dogmatic in sticking to his principles, the style he implemented with the Saints could in fact translate well into the different context he is coming into at Rangers.
I wonder how much of the negative reaction from the Rangers support is driven by Martin’s disappointing stint at Ibrox as a player, rather than a cold assessment of his time in the dugout. He was poor in Glasgow on the pitch, yes, but the shambolic state of Rangers at the time surely offers at least some mitigation.
More pertinently, there are admittedly some more understandable red flags though when it comes to his oft referenced ‘attacking’ style of play.
For every mention of his high-pressing, expansive approach, there is also the caveat that his priority is to hog possession. Which is all well and good, but if the Rangers fans wanted to watch their team endlessly pass the ball to one another in front of a low block with little idea of how to penetrate it, then Philippe Clement would still be in a job.
Whether Martin will ultimately be a success at Rangers, as with any managerial appointment, only time will tell. The only thing that his selection tells us unequivocally is that the new men in the Rangers boardroom are quite prepared to make unpopular decisions if they feel it is in the best long-term interests of the club.
As I said, a bold strategy, and as with all such calls, the reward or the failure will likely be spectacular. This appointment could solidify Andrew Cavenagh, Paraag Marathe, Kevin Thelwell and Dan Purdy’s credentials as the crack team who are finally destined to end this long period for Rangers in Celtic’s shadow, or it could very well tarnish their reputations right out of the gate.
What they must do, and this will fall on sporting director Thelwell and technical director Purdy, is provide the players that Martin needs to implement his preferred style properly, and at least give their man a fighting chance. Because with the current squad, I just don’t see it.
The coming weeks, and their recruitment, could well be even bigger and more consequential for Rangers than their controversial decision to plump for Martin as the man in the dugout.
Now, does anyone have the odds on Hamilton Accies hero Dougie Imrie becoming the new Motherwell manager?
