- 4 months ago
Mark Atkinson and Graham Falk discuss Rangers' 6-0 defeat by Club Brugge.
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00:00hello and welcome back to the scotsman football show i'm your host graham fogg i'm joined by
00:09mark atkinson sports editor of the scotsman rangers nil club brew six where do we begin
00:17with that mark yeah um a catastrophic night for rangers and russell martin um i think it's worth
00:25pointing out that we all expected them to go out tonight they were three one down from the first
00:29leg and we didn't expect progress but this was an opportunity for rangers to show something for the
00:36future and it was just a horrendous performance a horrific night not helped by an early goal and
00:44an early red card to max aarons but the way that rangers fell apart um it's one of those nights
00:51where you feel it's a watershed moment even this early into russell martin's tenure and given that
00:57he hasn't won a domestic league game yet there's only domestic victory coming against aloha and
01:02performances have been so poor and disjointed we're at a point even just what is it eight weeks into
01:08his tenure where we are discussing whether russell martin is the right man to take rangers forward
01:13and i think the 49ers enterprises and um andrew kavanagh the chairman have got a big decision to
01:19make now because i you look at the reaction graham that we're seeing on social media and
01:24in the stands i think russell martin's lost the majority of the angels fans it almost feels like
01:31unanimous um it's it's very rare you'll always see someone who has a different viewpoint of defending
01:37something but i actually haven't seen any of it i know social media is not always the
01:40the best barometer of stuff but i think it's a really interesting time for rangers from a neutral
01:46massively interesting actually because there's been talk of a project a long-term project the
01:53fact it's going to be something that's going to take time but then sort of the short-term things
01:58seem to be going from i i asked you if last week was disastrous earlier in the week on the show and
02:03if you know uh last week's disastrous result could be salvaged and you said you know they've got one goal
02:09there's still sort of a chance in some way if they perform well but i mean it pales in comparison
02:14what happened today can he survive it i think he can i think he can the reason why i think he can
02:21is because he's spoken like a man that believes he's got unswerving unwavering support from those
02:28above him but football results change things and you know you can only be one horrendous result i use
02:38the word catastrophic i think it could be catastrophic for russell martin because
02:41that board have got to now think to themselves right what do we do here have we made a terrible
02:47terrible error judgment in appointing him what's worrying for russell martin is that there aren't
02:53many signs of progress you'd think even at this early stage in a tenure you'd have some progress
02:59i don't think beating victoria pills and three nil at home can be judged as progress anymore it's
03:04too much water has gone under the bridge since then the the performances have been terrible
03:09and they're the defensively rangers are a mess structurally they're so limp and weak there are
03:18too many issues at rangers on the pitch for the board to ignore and they're going to have to have
03:23a serious conversation but you talk about russell martin being in the dock now i think you've got to put
03:29other people on the dock as well kevin felwell a new sporting director some of these signings that
03:34have come in under his watch and russell martin's watch they are just not good enough to play for
03:39rangers we've not seen enough evidence to show that and at rangers you don't get time i think
03:46that's one of the things that that many people out to the scottish football don't understand
03:50that the intense pressure atmosphere that you have at this club and you can't have a project that
03:57goes on for six months you can't really have a project that goes on for six weeks at rangers
04:01and i think now that it's an enormous moment in the fledgling new ownership that we have and
04:09yeah i think they could sack him i think they could um how ruthless are this rangers ownership we just
04:16don't know um but there's so much to untangle graham i mean we we we we talked about you and i talked
04:22the other day about transfers where the transfer window closes on monday you don't want to be
04:28sacking a manager before that but i mean you've seen the players in the flesh as well just so many
04:33of the guys they brought in they're just not up to it no they're just and i mean i felt like the
04:39decision from max erin's tonight sorry just and he's not impressed and he's getting in ahead of
04:45a club captain who's got and i know he's got his detractors sometimes james tavernier but
04:49he's experienced he's a captain he's done a lot of things for rangers in europe in a night like
04:55tonight he probably looked at something like that that bring a bit of experience maybe a little bit
05:00of know-how in that competition max erin's comes in and he's off after eight minutes and that's one
05:05of the new signings that you're looking to herald this new era rothwell hasn't impressed he's he's
05:10pretty much whether he's been told to sit in the middle and pass it sideways and backwards and i know
05:14that sometimes works but that's kind of all he's done um i i feel like and i'm going to laugh as i
05:22say this but i feel like barry ferguson might be sitting by the phone tonight for a couple of hours
05:26because it was that bad i mean i've seen a few people online say in their lifetime it's the worst
05:33performance they've seen let alone the worst result from rangers and i think that's the big problem i
05:37think you can accept that club rouge were far superior the levels above rangers and they're far ahead in
05:44the project that they've got compared to where rangers are or would like to be but there was
05:49just no fight there and i think russell martin said did he say we'll give everything to get a result
05:54but the players give nothing i mean how much i know russell martin's going to take the heat but how
06:00much blame does have to go on the players because it was only six months ago we were discussing
06:05philip clement not being good enough and before that giovanni from broncos and like how many of these
06:13managers are going to come in and not be good enough and at what point do the does the fingers
06:18sort of turn on the players a little bit it's a very good point graham i think we've we've seen
06:22um russell martin call out this rangers dressing room he did it after the mother wall game very early
06:28on the first premiership game of the season he came out and he filleted the majority of the players he
06:33talked about egos he talked about players not doing what they're being asked to do now he went very very
06:39early in that um sort of eviscoration you want to call it of his team of his squad probably thinking
06:48that he was going to get some of his own players in and was going to be able to ship out some of
06:51the people that he saw as problems when they played next rangers after that game he left out
06:57nicholas raskin he left out james tavernier and you wonder if those were some of the players that he
07:02was referring to once again those two were left out tonight um against club russell they all both
07:09appeared in the second half i think he's he's inherited a a poor squad um a squad a mishmash
07:17of players from different generations of managers um well-paid professionals that mentally aren't good
07:25enough to play for rangers um who have probably wilted when it's really turned upon them the best
07:32performances ironically have been in europe until tonight because i think they play under less
07:35pressure so is the problem russell martin right now he's part of it the players are also part of
07:43the problem and the new recruits are part of the problem because i don't think they're good enough
07:46right now and the old players they're not stepping up it's a it's an almighty mess that the 49ers that
07:53andrew kavanagh and parak marath have got to solve and they haven't got much time to do it
07:59i'm sure there are some pretty heavy conversations going on in belgium and beyond right now um we have
08:07an old firm game on Sunday as well i mean the timing could not be worse for rangers and 24 hours ago
08:14we were lamenting celtic well it's a hold my beer moment from rangers here because that was
08:19true and ironically in a place where beer is in plentiful supply in bruges and you just hope the
08:26rangers has it went there went there have been able to drown their sorrows because that was a
08:29a diabolical display and then the next the next 24 hours 40 hours are going to be fascinating
08:37what happens next it's uh an astonishing circumstance that this club finds it
08:42i think just to touch on that game on sunday and old firms always must win for rangers and for
08:50celtic it's never not but let's say that martin does survive this result because the turnaround's
08:56too short that it's a risk to sack him tomorrow based on the fact that you've got a game that could
09:02put what rangers nine points behind if they lose at this early stage in the season you don't really
09:08want someone to come in 48 hours beforehand and do it although they might not have any choice but let's
09:13assume he stays if there was ever a must win for a rangers manager in the game he simply cannot
09:20not win that he can't even draw he has to win that game if he's in charge on sunday it's interesting you
09:26say a must win i think i would respectfully of course disagree on that one just my own personal thing
09:32because i think it's probably a must not lose um a draw given what's happened tonight might be seen
09:39as some sort of positive um i think i mean a win would be would do wonders um a win would maybe
09:47convince some of the fans that there's a slither of hope um a defeat and ibrox and will be it'll just
09:54it'll pop those fans i mean we we get a wee snapshot of it in the press box don't we graham and
10:01you're gonna be there on sunday and there's guys but in that in behind the press box who are
10:05unforgiving when it comes to their team that's a wee snapshot of it yeah um so it's gonna be
10:13if they were to go behind early in that game it would it would be there'd be see for a level that
10:18we've not seen for a long time they just had to suffer of course they have they really have suffered
10:22um under numerous managers and may and if we do if we do get to a point where russell martin's
10:30taking out the firing line here's a question for you who takes charge of the team because all the
10:36people that are currently in that in that building are martins so you've got i mean these are things
10:43that you have to think about when you talk about sacking a manager it seems preposterous that we're
10:46talking about sacking russell martin so early into his tenure but that is where we are it's uh it's a
10:52a dark dark night for rangers and the there's so much that could still happen so um yeah who knows
10:59who knows what the visuals it's never boring is it mark but uh thanks for joining me at this time
11:05at night uh sometimes you just have to do these things when things like that happen but uh hopefully
11:10everyone's enjoyed the episode here and mark i'm sure we'll be busy in the next couple of days
11:14come with me absolutely thanks
11:16you
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