When the tenure of a manager goes from bad to worse and then to the stage where they are plainly doomed, there’s always a point when you sense the individual is begging to be put out of their misery.
That moment seemed to arrive for Russell Martin in the minutes following Saturday’s latest humiliation against Hearts at Ibrox.
Amid a blizzard of words — most of which, typically, pointed the finger of blame at his players while absolving himself — came one sentence which felt like an invitation to the hierarchy to draw a line under the whole sorry affair.
‘It is what it is,’ Martin said. ‘We’ll keep working until I’m told not to.’
For seasoned observers of such matters, this felt like an admission that the game was up.
Having been barracked by his own support throughout the duration of another lamentable display, even such a self-assured individual must have realised there was no way he could win the battle for hearts and minds.
He’s not quite getting his coat yet but Russell Martin has endured a horrific start at Rangers
There was more misery at the weekend as Rangers suffered a home defeat to Hearts
The Rangers supporters left the board in no doubt about their feelings over another defeat
The long and the short of it is that his reign has been an unmitigated disaster. A short statement thanking him from his efforts the following morning seemed inevitable.
Word that the club was standing by him — for now, at least — was nothing short of extraordinary.
While a dozen games in charge might be a small sample size, the James Webb Telescope would struggle to identify a trace of progress and any evidence that matters are about to get any better.
In his time to date, the 3-0 win over Viktoria Plzen remains the only occasion when Martin’s Rangers have truly looked the part.
On most occasions, they’ve been feeble, lacklustre and vulnerable. They don’t offer enough threat in the opposing box. Teams play through them unchallenged. They’re incapable of doing the fundamentals defensively.
Martin’s promise of delivering an intense, dominant style of play has turned out to be hogwash. Whatever vision he sold the club’s directors when he pitched for the job, it certainly wasn’t this.
With each passing week, those tasked with chronicling an increasingly calamitous episode are having to dig deeper into the past for historical context.
The loss to Hearts left Rangers on four points after five league matches, a staggering sequence of failure that presently has them 10th in the table.
Not since 1978-79 have the Ibrox team been in such a hole. John Greig’s team took one point less from as many matches back then yet somehow managed to see off Juventus and PSV Eindhoven in the European Cup. The side Martin built lost 9-1 on aggregate to Club Brugge.
You’d give a penny for the thoughts of the man who was voted Rangers’ greatest ever player on the never-ending shambles that’s this season.
As things stand, Martin’s 25 per cent win record makes him statistically the worst permanent manager in the Rangers’ history.
In the past three seasons, the club has jettisoned Giovanni van Bronckhorst (59 per cent), Michael Beale (72 per cent) and Philippe Clement (64 per cent). Even Pedro Caixinha’s record of 54 per cent has him standing head and shoulders above the current incumbent.
Martin has a worse record than even Pedro Caixinha and needs to turn things around quickly
Each of them eventually bit the dust. Despite being roundly booed when he emerged for the second half on Saturday, Martin carries on.
It’s not just the results which are damning. The recruitment which he’s signed off on has been wholly inadequate.
On the 12 arrivals to date (Lyall Cameron pre-dated Martin) only Djeidi Gassama scrapes a pass mark.
While it’s much too soon to pass judgement on names including Bojan Miovski, Youssef Chermiti and Derek Cornelius, it can be safely said that Max Aarons, Nasser Djiga and Emmanuel Fernandez don’t look up to the task.
‘The fact is that Rangers have spent an awful lot of money,’ said Ibrox legend Ally McCoist.
‘You spend £4m on (Oliver) Antman, £3.5m on (Thelo) Aasgaard. This is the one I can’t believe — you spent £4.5m on Oscar Cortes and put him out on loan. I mean, that is just absolutely unacceptable recruitment.
‘But it goes deeper than that. You spend £9m or £10m on Chermiti — give the lad a chance, he’s only just in the door — but he’s going to be a gamble.
‘I don’t care what anyone says, you’re better with the player you know.
‘I would have gone and got (Abdallah) Sima and (Vaclav) Cerny, two players that you know can perform at Rangers, have done well at Rangers, know the league, know the club, instead of taking another gamble.’
The new recruits have scarcely been helped by those who do know the environment. John Souttar’s best displays have come in the colours of Scotland. Mohamed Diomande has regressed. James Tavernier looks like a player who’ll turn 34 next month.
No player seems to sum up the whole debacle more than Nico Raskin. Back to his best when Barry Ferguson was in interim charge, the Belgian fell out of favour under Martin and looked to be heading out the door until the 11th hour on deadline day.
Despite agreeing to stay, there’s still evidently a difference of opinion with the manager. Martin insisted the midfielder had to regain ‘trust’ at the club after confirming he wouldn’t be involved against Hearts.
Whatever challenges Raskin presents as an individual, it’s incumbent on a boss to get the best out of him. It wasn’t a good look for the player to again be a spectator as the team slid to yet another loss at the weekend.
Three months ahead of schedule, the Belgian’s presence in the ground made it feel like pantomime season. No prizes for guessing whose side the audience were on.
Regardless of the empty platitudes they’ll trot out ahead of this weekend’s Premier Sports Cup tie against Hibs, you wonder if the players retain any faith in the man at the helm. All they seem to hear are mixed messages.
When they drew at Motherwell on the opening day of the season, Martin told them to ‘drop their ego’.
Having later insisted his remarks had come from ‘a place of love’, he blamed further setbacks on the ‘disrupted harmony’ caused by the transfer window.
Kevin Thelwell could be forced into a decision if Martin doesn’t turn things around soon
Then came Saturday evening’s latest bulletin. ‘It’s not tactics, mate,’ he insisted. ‘They’re scared. We see a very different team in training to the game. You only see the outcome at the end of the week.’
Until the point when the SPFL starts awarding bonus points for Monday morning finishing drills, Martin’s hot take on what constitutes progress isn’t going to cut much ice.
Those who’ll congregate again at Ibrox in their thousands on Saturday for the visit of Hibernian in the Premier Sports Cup must feel their lives are on a loop.
Never has a manager at their club failed so spectacularly yet stumbled on. Never has the silence from the hierarchy been so deafening.
Appointed a week after the consortium led by Andrew Cavenagh and Paraag Marathe took control, the reluctance of all concerned to acknowledge early on that an error of judgment was made was understandable.
But we’re way beyond that stage now. All faith was lost in their ‘standout choice’ some time ago. And each day he stays in the post, the faster the trust in the new regime will evaporate.
