“Sacked before half time”: Russell Martin on the brink as Rangers suffer humiliation | OneFootball

By around 20 minutes in this one last night, genuinely wondering whether or not Russell Martin would actually see out the full match. This was among the most humiliating starts to a European match in living memory for Rangers fans. We do not blame those who walked out. This was painful amid Russell Martin on the Rangers brink.

Clinical

You can talk about clinical finishing all you like. You can talk about mistakes all you like. But nevertheless, at this level, the difference was that Bruges punished those errors. Panathinaikos and Plzen didn’t. Bruges are a decent, canny, well-managed outfit. They are not Real Madrid, and they are not Man City or Liverpool. But they know what they’re doing at this level.

Rangers got lucky, and Russell Martin, let’s not forget, is experiencing his first season in Europe. Never mind his first season managing Rangers. Can he survive this? Well, incredibly, the Give Him Time crowd are still there, a little, but they have hugely reduced. Ibrox Noise ran a poll after this one last night, and the Give Him Time crowd have massively, massively gone down. It was around about 95% in favour of Russell Martin on the Rangers brink.

Give him time?

But the fact that there are still fans who will back Russell Martin shows that some fans will back whatever is in the marble staircase, no matter what. It is pretty depressing to think that some fans will accept this, or will continue to support and back him. It is the way they are, though, and we’re not going to question their character, we just cannot relate to them.

The ownership will be thinking very hard about this one. This wasn’t just a routine defeat, a close thing. This was a mauling, even if Rangers forged a little bit of a comeback in the second half. To be absolutely routed that way at home was a disgrace.

This is what happened when Rangers lost Connor Goldson against Liverpool. Only this was in the first half, not the second. The loss of Goldson and the introduction of Leon King killed that match completely, but this one was killed from the word go.

We don’t know if Martin will survive this. The ownership is all about profit, and they will see the big chunk of Champions League cash fading now. They know that they’ve cheaped out with this manager. Whether he survives is down to their desires. Time will tell.