It may seem crazy at this early stage of the season, but it would appear as though Russell Martin’s days at Rangers are numbered.
On Sunday, the first Old Firm of the season took place and to say it wasn’t a classic would be a contender for understatement of the century; it finished goalless, with Rangers’ xG 0.16 to the opposition’s 0.17.
After both Glasgow giants were ignominiously dumped out of Champions League qualifying during the week, neither are at the peak of their powers just now, but the crisis in Govan is certainly the more alarming of the two, so could this result in the shortest managerial tenure in the club’s 153-year history?
Russell Martin a man under pressure
Not including caretakers, Pedro Caixinha holds the record for the shortest tenure of any permanent Rangers manager, overseeing 26 matches in 2017, infamously knocked out of Europa League qualifying by Luxembourgish minnows Progrès Niederkorn.
Manager Focus
However, this record could be smashed in the coming weeks, with Martin having taken charge of just 11 fixtures to date; his 26th would come on 27 November against Braga, but many are forecasting that he’ll be long gone before then.
Sunday’s goalless stalemate with Celtic means Rangers have now drawn all four Premiership matches so far, previously held by Motherwell, Dundee and St Mirren, making this their worst start to a season since 1983, going on to finish all the way down in fourth back then.
Meantime, while they did enjoy impressive victories over Panathinaikos and Viktoria Plzeň, Rangers’ Champions League dreams were crushed by Club Brugge in the play-off round, steamrollered 9-1 on aggregate, their biggest two-legged European defeat for 65 years.
Following last Wednesday’s 6-0 annihilation at Jan Breydelstadion, speaking on the Guardian Football Weekly podcast, Ewan Murray believes that never before has there been a managerial appointment so instantaneously “doomed” as Martin at Rangers, adding that supporters didn’t want him in the first place, and the atmosphere has truly turned toxic following “horrendous” results and performances.
So, with games against Hearts, Hibs and then Genk to come after the international break, the new ownership group 49ers Enterprises have to be considering other managerial candidates, despite publicly backing Martin, so should a “serial winner” be very much at the top of their list?
Rangers' dream Russell Martin successor
In shock news last Friday, it was announced that Fenerbahçe had sacked José Mourinho, following their own elimination in the Champions League play-offs, defeated at Estádio da Luz on Wednesday, thereby ousted 1-0 aggregate by Benfica.
The İstanbul-based giants still have not qualified for the Champions League group stages since 2008, their most recent Turkish Süper Lig title coming in 2014, appointing Mourinho to change both of these facts, but he ultimately achieved neither during 14 months in the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium dugout.
In fairness, this has proved a salient strategy for numerous clubs in the past.
Before Mourinho, Porto hadn’t won the Champions League for 17 years, Chelsea hadn’t won the Premier League for 50 years, Inter hadn’t been European champions for 45 years and Roma hadn’t won a continental title for 62 years.
Well, given Celtic’s dominance of Scottish football recently, Rangers appears to be the perfect next destination for Mourinho, given his cult of personality, with reports late last week suggesting that the Gers could be set to open talks with the veteran coach.
For context, not only have the Hoops won 13 of the last 14 Premiership titles, since 2011/12, Celtic have picked up 28 major honours, during which time Rangers have won three, the same number as St Johnstone.
Well, speaking on BT Sport following Roma’s Conference League triumph over Feyenoord, Owen Hargreaves labelled Mourinho a “serial winner”, adding “football is about winning” and that is why he has brought Rome to life, so could the Special One do something similar on Glasgow’s south side?
Well, when 49ers Enterprises took a majority stake in Rangers earlier this summer, many were expecting them to target a big name; Martin doesn’t really fit that billing, does he?
Also, ahead of Fenerbahçe’s Europa League round of 16 tie at Ibrox in March, Mourinho intimated that he would like to manage one of Glasgow’s big two in the future.
When asked, he stated “why not in the future?”, adding that the Scottish league is a “league of passion…. which is everything”, and that he only wants to work at a club with “big fan bases, big emotions, big responsibilities and big expectations”.
So, could the recently out-of-work 62-year-old soon be unveiled in Glasgow?
Should this happen, it would, without doubt, be the most excited the Rangers support have been about a new manager since Steven Gerrard arrived seven years ago.
Back in 2018, thousands of supporters descended on Ibrox just to welcome the rookie manager, who would eventually deliver the Premiership title in his third season.
None of his successors, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Michael Beale nor Philippe Clement, have been able to repeat this feat, but Mourinho-mania would go through the roof in Glasgow, and he wins wherever he goes, except Tottenham, so why not Rangers?
