On September 3 Kev Thelwell sat down to tell viewers of Rangers TV about what a wonderful manager Russell Martin was.
The former Everton Director of Football laid it on thick as he explained that Martin was one of the best he had worked with. High praise after being alongside Sean Dyche and Davie Moyes at Goodison Park.
That interview came a week after the 6-0 capitulation to Club Brugge in the Champions League, fortunately the Belgian side switched off at half time.
That match saw the away support hold up the letters spelling out COWARDS, not even Martin could excuse his way out of that one although he did hang onto the early red card shown to Max Arrons, a great lad from his Norwich City days.
Martin was detested from the moment that he was linked with the Ibrox job.
His lifestyle choices were a clear red flag, some bears even decided to look at his football record and were horrified by the evidence from MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton.
There was a 10 day honeymoon after the appointment, Martin spoke well to the media, he gave time to fan media with the messengers trying to change opinion against their better judgment. Instinct told them that it was culturally a horrific mismatch appointing the former Southampton hipster, not once did he wear brogues or a smart club blazer during his 123 days in charge.
Instead Martin tried to impose his own values on the club, putting muesli and yoga on the menu, backed up by a wild swimming exercise to create team bonding. That didn’t go down well.
Trailing 2-0 at half time to Club Brugge in the first pre-season friendly, the boos rang round a half empty Ibrox.
After dropping two points to Motherwell in the SPFL opener the new boss slammed the mentality of his players, James Tavernier and Nico Raskin were dropped for the next match, fortunately Viktoria Plzen were beaten 3-0 in the highlight of Martin’s 17 match reign.
Five wins, including one over Alloa followed, two wins in the last 10 matches meant that the axe fell following a 1-1 draw away to Falkirk. Eight points collected from seven SPFL matches.
Thelwell conducted seven rounds of interviews before selecting Martin, his credibility is shot with the interview below exposing him as just another bluffer falling into jobs that he isn’t remotely qualified to do.
Discussing Martin with Rangers TV, Thelwell said:
I’ve been very lucky over the course of my career to work with some very good managers and some very good head coaches and I have to say to you, he’s one of the best.
He’s a very, very good coach, very good on the grass, very well organised, he’s extremely high energy.
So he gives time to players, wants to work with players and wants to develop players, wants to be very clear about trying to make players better and develop them.
And also he cares about the group. He cares about the results, cares about the performances and also cares about the staff here. I found him very, very collaborative.
Thelwell added
Now, I appreciate I’m saying all of those things and we haven’t quite translated yet that what I’m seeing on a day to day basis, all of that hard work, all of that energy into what we need to see on the pitch but I’m certain that that will happen.
And I appreciate it’s very easy for me to sit here and ask for patience. I won’t do that because I know we work at an incredible football club that desires and needs to have a winning team very, very quickly but there also needs to be a little bit of perspective here because we have changed so much and hopefully in due course, again, the fans and everybody will see all of the good work that’s been going on out on the pitch through the performances.
So much for all that fawning praise, either Thelwell was telling lies or he is a horrendous judge of managerial ability.
If Thelwell was any good at his job he wouldn’t have left Everton, joining the basket case at Ibrox suggests that his options were limited, his time at Ibrox and the Martin Experiment won’t open up any new career doors.
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