Russell Martin

[east-stand-nic]

3 hours ago, Football Special said:

You could say the same about the championship though and he got us promoted? 

Indeed. He finished 4th in a two horse race and got promoted after being forced to change his tactics. I am not saying he was the worst ever, but many managers would have done better than he did with that squad. He will come undone in the very same way at Rangers. 

[aintforever]

34 minutes ago, east-stand-nic said:

He finished 4th in a two horse race and got promoted after being forced to change his tactics.

I guess we will find out this year how easy it is to bounce straight back up.

[Turkish]

25 minutes ago, aintforever said:

I guess we will find out this year how easy it is to bounce straight back up.

Why do you need to wait and see? 

we bounced straight back up, so did Leicester, Burnley have done it twice in 3 years, Leeds did it within 2 years.

Of the last 6 teams to be relegated before this season 3 came straight back up, 1 came back up after 2 seasons and one of them lost in the play offs. 5 of the 6 finished in the top 4 of their first season in the championship. Let’s not make out it’ll the greatest resurrection since Lazarus  

 

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Why do you need to wait and see? 

we bounced straight back up, so did Leicester, Burnley have done it twice in 3 years, Leeds did it within 2 years.

Of the last 6 teams to be relegated before this season 3 came straight back up, 1 came back up after 2 seasons and one of them lost in the play offs. 5 of the 6 finished in the top 4 of their first season in the championship. Let’s not make out it’ll the greatest resurrection since Lazarus  

 

That does give us hope when you put it like that, I think after the season just gone I'm stuck in such a depressing cycle I expect us to be more like Luton 

[Turkish]

19 minutes ago, Football Special said:

That does give us hope when you put it like that, I think after the season just gone I'm stuck in such a depressing cycle I expect us to be more like Luton 

Sheffield United will be a threat next season as well as the relegated sides. Luton was an anomaly usually the relegated teams makes a good fist at “re promotion” I know people will point to Norwich and Watford as teams who struggled on relegation but even they finished a couple of wins outside play offs first season down and norwich made play off second season.

the fact is the vast majority of teams don’t struggle, but then we do like to reinvent football don’t we…….

Edited Wednesday at 17:50 by Turkish

[Dark Munster]

On 03/06/2025 at 04:48, gurru991 said:

Words alone cannot express how happy I am to see him sign for Rangers.  We dodged a bullet !!!

That's the good news. The bad news is I heard a rumour that your club is considering hiring Rasmus Ankersen as Director of Football.

[CB Fry]

I would advise the Forum Wuss-ettes to avoid any Rangers social media. I'm not sensing a lot of love out there for your hero

 

 

[SaintsBarry74]

6 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Not every Rangers fan is unhappy . Just seen this online, McFabrice is putting a positive spin on Lego’s season, 

 

The one thing we know we’ll get with Martin as manger is he QUICKLY implements his style of play

Focuses on possession, passing accuracy and building up from the back

Hard to judge him on Southampton as they had such a bad season. Few games to look at from his time there

Won every game in the Carabao Cup (stoke, Everton and Cardiff)

Beat Everton in the league
Drew away to Brighton
Drew with Ipswich

Only lost by a single goal to-
• Aston Villa away Southampton had more possession 53%. 485 passes. 90% successful to Villa’s 409 and 86% successful

• Liverpool home. Liverpool scored a late penalty to win. Less possession but still 38% against Liverpool. Scored twice and lost to a late penalty

• Man City away. Lost 1-0. 42% possession. 461 passes with a 90% successful rate

• Leicester home. 2-0 up at HT. Get a red card second half and lose 3-2. Almost DOUBLE the shots on target that Leicester had. 41% possession. Possession got a lot worse second half when down to 10 men. 

• Forest home. 65% possession. 656 passes. Lost 1-0

• Newcastle away. Lost 1-0 but had 78% possession. 19 shots and 649 passes to Newcastle’s 181. Dunno how they managed to lose this one 😂

Look at his games and their posession and passes

Forest home- 65% and 656 passes
Man Utd home- 44% and 480 passes
Ipswich home- 54% and 492 passes
Leicester home- 41% and 359 passes
Stoke home- 79% 
Everton home- 65%
Liverpool home- 38% and 359 passes
Chelsea home- 45% and 429 passes
Tottenham home- 41% and 426 passes
Newcastle away- 78% and 649 passes
Cardiff away- 73%
Brentford away- 63% and 621 passes
Everton away 75%
Bournemouth away- 60% and 568 passes
Arsenal away 41% and 395 passes
Man City away- 42% and 461 passes
Wolves away- 71% and 673 passes
Brighton away- 48% and 414 passes
Villa away- 53% and 485 passes

Average possession is 56% per game
Average passes per game is 497

1) Jan Bednarek had the highest possession percentage in the Premier League over the first 10 rounds last season, and was top 3 during RM’s entire tenure, in the entire fkn Premier League. And let’s be honest, big Jan is a donkey on the ball, which leads us to the following:

2) Most defensive errors leading to goals in PL history, and we “achieved” that by halfway through the season. For context, Sheffield United conceded 104 goals in their recent relegation season and still didn’t manage as many defensive errors. Says everything about how self-inflicted so many of our goals were.

 

3) Fewest attempts on goal and touches in the opposition half. So, with all that possession, what exactly did we achieve?

 

[hypochondriac]

7 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Not every Rangers fan is unhappy . Just seen this online, McFabrice is putting a positive spin on Lego’s season, 

 

The one thing we know we’ll get with Martin as manger is he QUICKLY implements his style of play

Focuses on possession, passing accuracy and building up from the back

Hard to judge him on Southampton as they had such a bad season. Few games to look at from his time there

Won every game in the Carabao Cup (stoke, Everton and Cardiff)

Beat Everton in the league
Drew away to Brighton
Drew with Ipswich

Only lost by a single goal to-
• Aston Villa away Southampton had more possession 53%. 485 passes. 90% successful to Villa’s 409 and 86% successful

• Liverpool home. Liverpool scored a late penalty to win. Less possession but still 38% against Liverpool. Scored twice and lost to a late penalty

• Man City away. Lost 1-0. 42% possession. 461 passes with a 90% successful rate

• Leicester home. 2-0 up at HT. Get a red card second half and lose 3-2. Almost DOUBLE the shots on target that Leicester had. 41% possession. Possession got a lot worse second half when down to 10 men. 

• Forest home. 65% possession. 656 passes. Lost 1-0

• Newcastle away. Lost 1-0 but had 78% possession. 19 shots and 649 passes to Newcastle’s 181. Dunno how they managed to lose this one 😂

Look at his games and their posession and passes

Forest home- 65% and 656 passes
Man Utd home- 44% and 480 passes
Ipswich home- 54% and 492 passes
Leicester home- 41% and 359 passes
Stoke home- 79% 
Everton home- 65%
Liverpool home- 38% and 359 passes
Chelsea home- 45% and 429 passes
Tottenham home- 41% and 426 passes
Newcastle away- 78% and 649 passes
Cardiff away- 73%
Brentford away- 63% and 621 passes
Everton away 75%
Bournemouth away- 60% and 568 passes
Arsenal away 41% and 395 passes
Man City away- 42% and 461 passes
Wolves away- 71% and 673 passes
Brighton away- 48% and 414 passes
Villa away- 53% and 485 passes

Average possession is 56% per game
Average passes per game is 497

You really can prove anything with stats. 

Edited Wednesday at 19:16 by hypochondriac

[Miltonaggro]

5 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

I would advise the Forum Wuss-ettes to avoid any Rangers social media. I'm not sensing a lot of love out there for your hero

 

 

They remade it in 2023:

[SaintsLoyal]

The job is way too big for him.

[CB Fry]

42 minutes ago, SaintsLoyal said:

The job is way too big for him.

If you think how arsey and snippy he got after a few ironic cheers from the Northam for McCarthy booting it long a couple of times you dread to think how he will cope in the teeth of some of the most entitled fans in British football. And tons of them.

 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

35 minutes ago, SaintsLoyal said:

The job is way too big for him.

I think that was the draw for Brand Martin. He sticks to his guns and gets bigger jobs. MK Dons, Swansea, Saints and Rangers (if that's finalised). He's now in European competition. A whole new set of suitors when his time at Ibrox ends.

SR left him with a weaker squad in the PL than his promotion squad. If Rangers have the personnel to even fill the big gaps such as Adams type striker and an experienced DM, then they should be finishing second. If he gets a decent European campaign (which is far from certain for Scottish clubs) then he can fail, but now have that experience on his CV.

[CB Fry]

9 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

I think that was the draw for Brand Martin. He sticks to his guns and gets bigger jobs. MK Dons, Swansea, Saints and Rangers (if that's finalised). He's now in European competition. A whole new set of suitors when his time at Ibrox ends.

SR left him with a weaker squad in the PL than his promotion squad. If Rangers have the personnel to even fill the big gaps such as Adams type striker and an experienced DM, then they should be finishing second. If he gets a decent European campaign (which is far from certain for Scottish clubs) then he can fail, but now have that experience on his CV.

He'd have to win the league at least a couple of times to get a job any better than the top end of the Championship.

Strachan won three titles in a row and went to Middlesbrough. Neil Lennon went to Bolton. Yes, Gerrard got Villa but on his name. Brendan went to Leicester but was already proven Premier League.

I think Russ would have to do well as Ange did at Celtic (2 league titles in two years) to truly go up a rung in his next job.

[Whitey Grandad]

11 hours ago, Football Special said:

You could say the same about the championship though and he got us promoted? 

We finished 4th. I suspect that wouldn't be good enough for Rangers..

[Dusic]

6 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

We finished 4th. I suspect that wouldn't be good enough for Rangers..

If they finish 4th in the Championship this season there will be a major inquest!

[StrangelyBrown]

6 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

We finished 4th. I suspect that wouldn't be good enough for Rangers..

If he managed 4th with us having the 3rd best squad, I wonder what that means for Rangers who are still some distance from Celtic?

How much "scar tissue" is there at Rangers for Martin to overcome?

How long will Rangers have to trust the process for?

Will the Rangers players be brave enough to make Martin successful?

How much will Rangers have to pay to get players like Bazunu and Manning on the bus?

[Weston Super Saint]

8 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

I think that was the draw for Brand Martin. He sticks to his guns and gets bigger jobs. MK Dons, Swansea, Saints and Rangers (if that's finalised). He's now in European competition. A whole new set of suitors when his time at Ibrox ends.

SR left him with a weaker squad in the PL than his promotion squad. If Rangers have the personnel to even fill the big gaps such as Adams type striker and an experienced DM, then they should be finishing second. If he gets a decent European campaign (which is far from certain for Scottish clubs) then he can fail, but now have that experience on his CV.

A Martin team finishing second in a two horse race is probably par for the course...

[saintant]

To get most of the Ranger's fanbase onside Martin will, as a bare minimum, need to push Celtic all the way and certainly drastically improve on the season just finished where they lagged 17 points behind. The other teams in the league are cannon fodder with 3rd place going to Hibernian who finished 17 points behind Rangers.  In some ways it should suit him as they are guaranteed at least 2nd spot but the pressure will come from always having to beat everyone including Celtic. If Martin sticks to his guns and refuses to change from his well known plan A then Brendon Rogers will already know exactly how to set up to beat Rangers. I suspect that Russell will actually have to ditch his principles and be more adaptive and proactive but, as we know, he's nothing if not stubborn and full of self indulgence. It will be interesting to watch how the season unfolds for his new side and my guess is that any honeymoon period will be very short. I wish him luck and, unless he changes, he will need it.

[tdmickey3]

42 minutes ago, StrangelyBrown said:

If he managed 4th with us having the 3rd best squad, I wonder what that means for Rangers who are still some distance from Celtic?

How much "scar tissue" is there at Rangers for Martin to overcome?

How long will Rangers have to trust the process for?

Will the Rangers players be brave enough to make Martin successful?

How much will Rangers have to pay to get players like Bazunu and Manning on the bus?

Everything will be fine, hugs all round and it will be a fine.

[Wade Garrett]

The guy that was completely blown away by Martin’s interview for the Rangers job will probably be out on his ear by the end of the season.

Martin is the classic snake oil salesman.  There are plenty out there who want to buy snake oil.

[Weston Super Saint]

Confirmed.

Good luck Rangers!!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cd0lrv9xnxvo

Quote

Russell Martin is Rangers' new head coach, with the former Southampton boss signing a three-year contract at the start of a fresh era at Ibrox.

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Weston Super Saint

[John B]

4 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

The guy that was completely blown away by Martin’s interview for the Rangers job will probably be out on his ear by the end of the season.

Martin is the classic snake oil salesman.  There are plenty out there who want to buy snake oil.

Not a fan I see but read this Rangers on verge of appointing Russell Martin as new manager - BBC Sport

 

[Farmer Saint]

16 hours ago, east-stand-nic said:

Indeed. He finished 4th in a two horse race and got promoted after being forced to change his tactics. I am not saying he was the worst ever, but many managers would have done better than he did with that squad. He will come undone in the very same way at Rangers. 

Two horse race? Three horse race, maybe, but two is a very odd way to put it.

In relation to Martin, this is a perfect job for him. Players that are better than the rest of the division bar one team, and a recent history of turmoil and underachievement.

Edited 23 hours ago by Farmer Saint

[saintant]

One thing is for certain - if this goes bad Martin will need to grow a thicker skin because any stick he received from the crowd at St Marys during the bad times will be nothing compared to the maelstrom of derision and vitriol that will cascade from the Ranger's fans. If he doesn't deliver he'd better be ready to deal with a major shit storm from the terraces.

[saintant]

7 minutes ago, John B said:

Not a fan I see but read this Rangers on verge of appointing Russell Martin as new manager - BBC Sport

 

I read it and my considered opinion is that most of it is bullshit and papers over some glaring cracks.

[Weston Super Saint]

15 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Confirmed.

Good luck Rangers!!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cd0lrv9xnxvo

 

From the linked article - that the BBC have now updated :

Quote

"There's a lot to be done, but the goal is clear: win matches, win trophies and give Rangers fans a team that they can be proud of. We want to play with bravery, to take the ball, to be aggressive, and to stand up in the big moments."

And so the talk of bravery and aggression begins.

There's only one captain Jack good enough for this role....

[AlexLaw76]

He will do well in the league, flat track bully.

But the derby matches and Europe is where he will be judged.

he may have learnt a lot from the sobering time in the premier league, good managers do.

Will his stubborn arrogance allow the lessons to be digested 

[sockeye]

Good luck to him

[skintsaint]

Rangers will walk the league. Literally.

[benjii]

First act:

Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays off.

[Midfield_General]

32 minutes ago, saintant said:

One thing is for certain - if this goes bad Martin will need to grow a thicker skin because any stick he received from the crowd at St Marys during the bad times will be nothing compared to the maelstrom of derision and vitriol that will cascade from the Ranger's fans. If he doesn't deliver he'd better be ready to deal with a major shit storm from the terraces.

Absolutely this. 

The St Mary's crowd was unbelievably tolerant and supportive, considering the results. He had an incredibly easy ride in that respect. 

The vast majority of Rangers fans are horrified at this appointment and don't want him, so he's seriously on the back foot with the fanbase before they've even kicked a ball. He's then got up to three Champions League qualifiers as his first matches, with the first on 22nd July, which gives him 6 weeks to get his team together and get his ideas across and implemented before they get tested in a proper competitive fixture with very high stakes. If those qualifiers don't go well, and then they don't win the first Old Firm game, he's in big trouble straightaway. 

He desperately needs to get off to a strong start otherwise it could get very toxic, very quickly, and when the Ibrox crowd turns he will know about it. I wish him luck, because he is going to need it. 

Edited 23 hours ago by Midfield_General

[Turkish]

16 minutes ago, benjii said:

First act:

Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays off.

Lucy isn’t going to snash her own back doors in 

[Midfield_General]

OK this made me laugh from the Rangers boards (sound on) 

 

[Barsiem]

I think (and hope) he'll do well up there tbh. 

For me he doesn't get enough credit on here for getting us back up at the first time of asking.  He inherited a completely broken team, which had a lot of player turnover and got them all playing together.  Yes we didn't set the league on fire, but going up through the playoffs was amazing!  We all would have taken that outcome at the start of the season, and lots doubted it was possible.

Of course the PL was another story...  But overall I wish him well

[Turkish]

Just like Jason Wilcox, who I see has just been promoted by Man United despite having their worst season in about 50 years he’s built his brand well and seems to be very highly rated in certain circles despite not achieving very much 

[Lighthouse]

Good luck to him, Rangers is a decent job. Would be nice from our POV if he could take Fraser and perhaps Manning up there with him.

[coalman]

from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers 

"His teams play dominant football, they control the ball, dictate the tempo and impose themselves physically. They press aggressively and work relentlessly off the ball. These are all characteristics that we believe are required to be successful at home, away, and abroad."

Have they watched any of our games before making this appointment or just the Gary Lineker interview?

[SWLondon Saint]

Well I'm absolutely delighted - that the guy is off our payroll at last. The guy is an absolute fraud and if we'll see if he's learned anything from having his lunch money nicked and getting kicked in round the bogs in the premier league very soon....

[Turkish]

Just now, Lighthouse said:

Good luck to him, Rangers is a decent job. Would be nice from our POV if he could take Fraser and perhaps Manning up there with him.

And Stephens please

[coalman]

The Rangers forum has already eclipsed saintsweb by hitting 1035 pages of discussion compared to our measly 340. Someone needs to get up there and tell them they're all obsessed.

[Hatch]

Thelwell suggested Martin's time in the Premier League "has sharpened his approach, both tactically and personally".

Giving an insight into what a Rangers team under Martin will be like, he added: "His teams play dominant football, they control the ball, dictate the tempo and impose themselves physically. They press aggressively and work relentlessly off the ball.

 

 

I call bullshit

[suewhistle]

54 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

We want to play with bravery, to take the ball, to be aggressive, and to

pass the ball back to the centre backs if there's a smidgeon of doubt that you might lose the ball..

[Micky]

46 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

He will do well in the league, flat track bully.

But the derby matches and Europe is where he will be judged.

he may have learnt a lot from the sobering time in the premier league, good managers do.

Will his stubborn arrogance allow the lessons to be digested 

What did he learn though?  He may have learned that his system didn't work, but he certainly didn't learn how to fix it, hence our results. 

[Miltonaggro]

Best news here is that it could well save Saints some payments to Martin, and that he will likely have to do his shopping in the range of Bazunu, Manning, Smallbone (despite sectarian baggage) and Fraser. Optimal result if that happens. 

[DT]

Good luck Russ. Great job with major upsides. Please sign McCarthy.

[Zorba]

54 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Lucy isn’t going to snash her own back doors in 

“Can ye no shave a wee bit? It’s like Gandalf’s beard doon there!”

Edited 22 hours ago by Zorba

[gio1saints]

Does anyone truly believe that Martins EPL squad was good enough to finish anywhere other than the bottom three? If you do just look at the squad lists of the other epl teams…

Supposedly star managers like McKenna could not do it for Ipswich.  The best you could say for the EPL campaigns of Man Utd Spurs and West Ham was that they avoided relegation - ignominiously - and with way better squads - and  supposedly way better managers, than ours. 
 

The single biggest factor in our relegation was failure to upgrade player and squad quality upon promotion. And yes, maybe, that should have included RM himself. But We would have gone down playing any formation and style you wish under any Manager with that squad. 

So, this whining about how shit Martin was or still is may actually be a massive red herring obscuring the real key factor. Keep crying about Martin and forget all he did was play the cards he had only real way he knew how. You need to look upstairs for the real people at fault. 

 

 

[Turkish]

14 hours ago, Miltonaggro said:

They remade it in 2023:

That’s @Crab Lungs doupleganger. 
wait is he Russell Martin?

[Miltonaggro]

58 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Lucy isn’t going to snash her own back doors in 

To be honest if I were Russ, I'd usually be entering via the double garage.