Russell Martin has spoken out for the first time since the Rangers fans decided to protest outside his home amid the club’s miserable form this season
Russell Martin admits his professional pride has been wounded by the criticism of his Rangers coaching abilities – but insists he won’t take supporters’ criticism to heart.
The embattled Ibrox manager is hanging onto his position after a catastrophic start to the campaign – the club’s worst in nearly five decades.
Fresh American owner Andrew Cavenagh has been compelled to return to Glasgow to handle a developing crisis, with supporters organising a doorstep protest before Saturday evening’s Premier Sports Cup quarter-final encounter with Hibs, reports the Daily Record.
However, whilst fan anger has reached fever pitch, Martin maintains he still feels “incredibly well supported” by the US executives now running the club.
The struggling manager did, nevertheless, acknowledge he was wounded by accusations from supporter media figures during last week’s heated post-match press conference that his side didn’t appear “coached” during the shambolic 2-0 loss to Hearts which leaves Rangers wallowing in 10th position in the Premiership table.
He said: “For me it’s just a really difficult balance because it hurts professionally.
“We’re working so hard to try and give the supporters what they want – a team that wins and wins a lot and does it in a certain way.
“So I’m as frustrated and more frustrated than anyone because we’re the guys that are in charge of that and with the results and some of the performance it’s been really frustrating, really difficult.
“And then being in here and listening to someone tell me the team doesn’t look like it’s coached is difficult because I think the one thing that we’ve always said for any of our teams, is they have a certain way of doing things.
“Whether you believe in it or you like it or not, they definitely look a certain way which takes a lot of time on the training pitch.
“So we’ll get there with this team.
“The fans’ protest and stuff I can’t control at all so I don’t spend any time..
“I have to respect it, I have to understand their frustration and their annoyance but I feel every bit of it as well.
“But I do think it’s an amazing opportunity for us as a team to come through this period and grow through it and to be so strong from it.
“Hopefully at that point then everyone will come together and we’ll just need to win football matches.
“So the protest and stuff like that, I can’t take it personally.
“They don’t know any of it, they don’t know me and they don’t know how hard we’re working but I think the people inside the building I feel incredibly well supported, the players, the staff, ownership and as long as that continues then it’ll be fine.”
Along with Martin, sporting director Kevin Thelwell and CEO Patrick Stewart have also been targeted by the angry supporters. However, Martin jumped to the defence of both men, stating: “I think this club has been used by some individuals over the last however long, who’ve come here to progress their career, to have the status of being attached to a football club in the city.
“But in Patrick, in the ownership, in Kevin, you’ve got people that actually really care about making this club sustainable and successful again.
“So we know it’s going to take some work to get back to that.
“And I think when you’re in a role that I’m in, Patrick’s in, of course you’re always going to be, you’re always going to be a target of frustration if it’s not going so well.
“What I would say to people is he genuinely really cares about the people here. He genuinely really cares about trying to give the club something to build from. And also he didn’t inherit a place that was really flying and ticking along and the culture’s great and all that stuff.
“It takes time off the pitch to change things, especially with the level of scrutiny that you have.
“So my impression of Patrick, the owners, Kevin, the people in leadership are good people, honest people that are not here to be attached to the fame and the level of importance or status you have with this job.
“They’re here to actually come and make a big difference and to try and help this club not have the problems that it’s had in the past.”
In other news, Martin confirmed that Nico Raskin could make a comeback after being left out of his squads for the Celtic and Hearts matches.
“Yeah he’s in the squad,” he said. “He’s trained really well this week. I think even in that situation maybe it’s a necessary thing for this group to improve, to understand what is really important.
“I think it will be a really important period for Nico and his growth as a human being and a player and I think it will be good for me in the long term as well to really, to learn from it.
“So he’s in a good place, I’m looking forward to having him back in.”
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