When Rangers appointed Russell Martin as the new head coach at Ibrox, it looked like a decent appointment on paper for the Light Blues.
However, this has been nothing short of a disaster for Rangers. Martin was in charge of the Gers for 17 short games. During that time frame, he won just five times and saw his side score 21 goals.
They shipped 24 and kept three clean sheets, one of which remarkably came against their Old Firm rivals.
The writing has been on the wall for a while and it all came tumbling down after their 1-1 draw with lowly Falkirk on Sunday afternoon.
Matches
17
Wins
5
Draws
6
Defeats
6
Goals scored
21
Goals conceded
24
Points per game
1.24
Supporters blocked the team bus from leaving and a police escort had to ensure the manager left the ground in his car safely. Truth be told, he was never going to survive that.
Lo and behold, an announcement was made on Sunday night confirming his exit from Glasgow. He will go down as one of the club’s worst-ever managers.
So, what’s next? Well, a series of candidates have reportedly already been lined up.
The candidates to replace Russell Martin as Rangers manager
With Martin gone, Kevin Thelwell and Co will need to move quickly if they want to salvage the club’s season.
According to talkSPORT, one candidate to step into the vacancy is Steven Gerrard. That link is perhaps unsurprising given the volume of links to the Liverpudlian of late but he is currently a free agent and would be a hassle-free appointment.
Another manager out of work is Sean Dyche, and as per TEAMtalk, he is now the favourite to become the new head coach at Ibrox.
They reported this weekend that Thelwell, who worked alongside Dyche at Everton, could look towards the 54-year-old to move to Glasgow.
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The pair are said to still hold a positive relationship, so much so that Dyche is allegedly ‘very open’ to being given the job at Rangers.
The report notes that he ranks ‘very highly’ on the club’s shortlist as they now go about replacing Martin in the coming days.
Why Dyche could inspire Jose Mourinho-like change
You’d be hard-pressed in the current managerial market to find a head coach capable of doing a poorer job than Martin did in Scotland.
Hardly rated too highly after overseeing one of the worst Premier League sides, Southampton, in recent memory, his stock as a manager has only fallen further.
Dyche, however, has plenty of credit in the bank having done a sterling job at keeping Burnley in England’s top-flight for a number of years on a shoestring budget.
Truth be told, the former defender has rarely operated on a huge budget and given the level of finances in the Scottish Premiership, he should be fine in that regard.
While Everton didn’t pull up too many trees under Dyche, he still did an admirable job with the resources at his disposal. Having been appointed midway through 2022/23 when the Toffees were in bother of being relegated, he successfully kept them in the league and then guided them to a 15th-place finish in 2023/24.
It’s hardly awe-inspiring but as a head coach, he’s never been the flashy one. He’s let his results do the talking. After all, he has previously been described as “one of the most underrated managers in the Premier League” by content creator HLTCO.
Perhaps the most glowing review comes courtesy of former Everton man, Michael Ball. Speaking two years ago, he drew comparisons to a certain Jose Mourinho, someone who’s previously been linked with the Gers job.
Ball commented: “I have seen a lot of debate online following Saturday’s game about the way we [Everton] set up, but for me, the most important thing is that we are getting results.”
He continued: “Football is a results-driven business and picking up points is important if we [Everton] are to avoid another relegation battle. Even someone like Jose Mourinho has his own style of play, which is to park the bus, as they say, and he deployed that at Real Madrid, but the big difference is that he had Cristiano Ronaldo up front. What I am saying is that both managers have their own beliefs about how their sides should be set up to play.”
Youssef Chermiti and Bojan Miovski are no Ronaldo, of course they’re not, but for Dyche, the style of play does not matter, just as it doesn’t with Mourinho.
For Martin, that seemed to be all that mattered. Not once but twice not he’s stubbornly tried to imprint his style of play on a club and it’s gone horribly wrong.
When Southampton were promoted to the Premier League in 2024, he continued to play an expansive style of football and they were made to pay. At Ibrox, things didn’t go much better.
Dyche, however, is from a breed of managers who rely on solidity; they rely on organisation, they rely on a lack of chaos. All season long, Rangers fans have had to endure too much chaos. If they want a quick change of fortunes, then Dyche is surely their man.
Like Mourinho, he’ll get the job done and if that means dull football for a little while, then so be it. He’d certainly help make this Rangers squad more unified and more regimented.