Russell Martin has acknowledged but quickly played down the angry reaction of Ibrox fans to last night’s Champions League humiliation from Club Brugge.
Pre-match the loyal bears were all full of the battle fever as they prepared for another of those special European night but after just 20 minutes hundreds were streaming home with their Champions League dreams in disarray.
For a support brought up on No Surrender and Not Walking Away it was a sorry site, most never wanted Martin on the short list for the managers job, now their views have been vindicated with last night’s performance and result as bad as anything that has been served up in recent years.
Liverpool and Lyon have inflicted European hammerings at Fortress Ibrox in the last three years but neither of them eased into a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes, Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp were only leading 2-1 at half time before the duo of Leon King and James Sands went into top gear.
Last night was Match Eight in the Russell Revolution- for a vital European tie where a win could generate £40m he started with three loan signings in defence captained by John Souttar who will be out of contract at the end of this season.
It is a Revolution built on sand, even the Gullible & Deluded can see through this with the attendance last night just 43,000.
Asked about the angry reaction of the fans The Sun reported Martin saying:
They are all entitled to their opinion, although we will need them so much. The club has had a long period, bar one season, when it’s not been as successful as it wants to be.
We need to come together. After the second-half performance, I hope they go away thinking this tie is not over.
The pre-cursor to change is pain. I knew there would be pain early on. We have to make sure that the pain is worth it.
Lurching into his favoured upbeat management talk that completely ignores the events on the pitch the vegan Buddhist added:
The players’ response has given me new energy about what’s to come. We will do everything we can next week to win the game and qualify for the Champions League. All of us inside the building need to be really strong and continue with the plan.
The club has bounced about with many plans that have not worked. The level of resilience the team showed in the second half will help us grow a lot. I believe that. We are now in the position of hunting and chasing next week. I’m going to enjoy that and I think the players will as well.
Thousands of football fans across Scotland are also likely to enjoy next week’s action from Belgium.
10 minutes 25 seconds for the 0-3 half time boooooooos
Martin is incredibly detached from reality, loving life in his little bubble and using a media conference to reassure his mum that he is really enjoying his new job working with the angry and abusive Sweaties.
His beliefs, appearance and attitude always made Martin a poor match as manager for the most right-wing, non-progressive group of supporters in Europe.
Neil Warnock is the type of manager that would be cheered to the rafters at Ibrox, playing 4-4-2 and lumping the ball forward at every opportunity to a team made up wholly of Brexit voters.
Martin is trying to impose the exact opposite.
His football delusions are bad but they are made worse by his media conferences where he delivers self confidence on a level that is hard to belief.
He has had bang average results out of MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton yet comes across as someone who thinks that he has spent his career rubbing shoulders with Pep Guardiola.
The sales talk of Mark Warburton and Micky Beale failed to last a year in the top flight of Scottish football, Martin will be back in his comfort zone before Christmas reflecting on how the Jocks refused to move with the times and buy in to his exciting soccer project.
On Friday Martin explained that he was turning a tanker, on Monday he was explaining that his mum was getting upset by the levels of abuse her little lad was getting on message boards. Serving up fun copy to the media isn’t going to save the former MK Dons from the mauling coming his way when the inevitable announcement is made that the Board would like to thank Russell and all his staff for their efforts.
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