Russell Martin sacked as Rangers head coach after four months in charge at Ibrox

Russell Martin has been sacked as head coach of Rangers after four months in charge.

The club hierarchy made the decision following the 1-1 draw at Falkirk which leaves the team with only five wins from his 17 games in charge.

Martin’s spell as Rangers manager, just 122 days long, is the shortest in the club’s history and will go down as a major failure early in the stewardship of the new American owners.

The 39-year-old departs Rangers following a dismal start to the season that provoked fury from fans. 

A club statement released on Sunday night read: “Rangers Football Club confirms that it has parted company with head coach, Russell Martin.

“While all transition periods require some time, results have not met the club’s expectations.

“Assistant head coach, Matt Gill, and first-team coach, Mike Williamson, will also be departing.

“Russell and his staff have worked exceptionally hard throughout their time at the club. We thank them for their efforts and wish them well for the future.

“Further updates from the club will follow in due course.”

Rangers currently sit eighth in the Premiership table after five draws, one defeat and just one victory in the league. Martin’s only other domestic wins have been a 4-2 win over League One side Alloa Athletic and a 2-0 victory over Hibs in the Premier Sports Cup.  

The side were knocked out of Champions League qualifying after a humiliating 9-1 aggregate loss to Club Brugge,and have lost both their Europa League games so far, against Genk and Sturm Graz. 

The draw at Falkirk comes after weeks of pressure on Martin as fans’ anger rose with each adverse result. Furious scenes unfolded after Sunday’s game with supporters surrounding the team coach and shouting abuse at the players. Martin had to leave the stadium by a separate door and was taken away in a car rather than leave by bus along with his team. 

Martin had insisted he would not resign and was repeatedly given the backing of the board but they have now taken the decision to remove him from his position and must begin the search for the club’s sixth manager in five years. 

The former MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton boss was appointed as head coach in early June after the new US-led ownership consortium went through a lengthy recruitment process that saw former Real Madrid first team coach Davide Ancelotti, son of Brazil manager Carlo, under serious consideration, and former Rangers manager Steven Gerrard also on the shortlist. 

The choice of Martin as boss was not met enthusiastically by a significant portion of the Rangers support, who remembered the former Scotland international from an underwhelming loan spell at Ibrox in his playing days, and who had also noted his results before being dismissed by Southampton last season.  

New sporting director Kevin Thelwell and Martin embarked on an overhaul of the playing squad, bringing in 14 new players as a number of experienced players left Ibrox, and there was a £20m net spend on strengthening overall. 

A win over Panathinaikos in his first competitive game gave Martin a positive start and the team progressed through two rounds of Champions League qualifying but the domestic campaign began with the team letting a lead slip to draw 1-1 with Motherwell. 

A 1-1 draw with Dundee, again after being in front, brought further pressure on Martin early in his tenure and though the team progressed to the Premier Sports Cup quarter-finals with the 4-2 in over Alloa, results were to get worse. 

Club Brugge raced to a 3-0 lead in the first 20 minutes of the Champions League play-off first leg at Ibrox, punishing a poor defence and though Rangers clawed a goal back, they had a huge uphill battle to turn the tie around.  

Martin said his side wouldn’t concede goals like that again but they conceded easily again in their next match as the team drew 1-1 with St Mirren left the team having dropped six out of nine points at the start of the league campaign. That result was slightly overshadowed by Hamza Igamane refusing Martin’s instructions to come on as a substitute and the Moroccan striker was sold to Lille days later. 

After travelling to Belgium hoping to turn around the tie against Brugge, Rangers instead suffered a humiliating 6-0 defeat after being ruthlessly exposed by a confident home side. Martin apologised to supporters for a “painful and embarrassing” night and many called for his sacking.  

Despite that performance being a turning point for many fans, he continued to have the full backing of the Ibrox hierarchy, and his position was bolstered when owner Andrew Cavenagh visited the training ground ahead of the Old Firm derby and told the players he had faith in Martin. 

A 0-0 draw against Celtic was a positive result given what had gone before but it continued a winless start in the league and again other issues put the spotlight on the increasingly beleagured head coach. The omission of Belgian midfielder Nicholas Raskin, one of the team’s stand-out players the previous season, raised questions about Martin’s relationship with the player. 

That issue resurfaced after the international break and while Raskin returned to first-team training, Martin left him out of the squad to play Hearts.  

The Edinburgh side, who had also received new investment, overhauled the squad and changed manager in the summer, ran out 2-0 winners and Martin was repeatedly booed during and after the game, with chants that he would be “sacked in the morning”.   

Martin again insisted he could turn things around and again the ownership gave the coach their backing and made it clear he would be in charge for the cup quarter-final against Hibs. 

Winning that match, with Raskin restored to the side and playing a key role, eased the pressure slightly and saw Martin talking positively about the future and his belief that things were moving in the right direction. However, results continued to be inconsistent and below the expectations of supporters, some of whom protested against him, Thelwell and Stewart. 

The Europa League campaign began with defeats to Genk and Sturm Graz, with Martin’s solitary league win coming in between those games when an injury-time winner was needed to take three points against Livingston. 

The Premiership match against Falkirk on Sunday saw Bojan Miovski give the side the lead, but supporters chanted for Martin’s removal immediately after celebrating the goal, and when Falkirk equalised in the second half, the mood turned uglier. While fans attempted to block the team bus outside the stadium, Martin faced the media indoors.  

He maintained his belief that he could still turn things around, and when asked if the owners might look at the imminent international break to make a change, he said he couldn’t answer that. 

The board has now answered with the announcement that Martin is leaving the club with immediate effect. 

The club will look to find a successor who can improve the squad that Martin has assembled and begin to lift the mood around Ibrox after a summer of change raised expectations that the team has failed to meet in a tumultuous start to the season. 

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