In the four months since he first took charge at Rangers, Russell Martin has got much more wrong than right.
Amid a litany of miscalculations on and off the park, his assessment of where the Ibrox club stood in the moments following a 6-0 humiliation away to Club Brugge last month took the biscuit.
‘I think there’s been a fragility at this club for a long, long time, so it’s not a new thing,’ he said after that disaster on the road led to a 9-1 aggregate demolition.
‘Apart from one season, the club have had a lot of pain in the last 14 or 15 years.’
While there might have been nothing Martin could have said to mitigate the level of angst supporters felt at that point, his attempt to claim that the loss was typical of the club’s travails fooled no one with a reasonable recall of recent events.
That Rangers have suffered badly since becoming insolvent in 2012 is plain for all to see. Just three domestic trophies have been claimed in that time. Domestically, it’s been the most fallow period in living memory.
Russell Martin has come under intense pressure in the early weeks of this season
His side exited the Champions League in embarrassing fashion at the hands of Club Brugge
The manager is hoping to build on a positive result against Hibernian with a win over Genk
However, one thing which has captured the imagination of the paying public across that period has been the ability of a succession of managers to get the team punching above their weight in Europe.
There’s been precious little evidence of ‘fragility’ on this front. Rangers, indeed, have frequently over-performed on this stage. The Brugge debacle was not in keeping with much of what had gone before. It was disingenuous to suggest it was.
While Giovanni van Bronckhorst did endure a hideous experience in the Champions League proper in 2022-23 when Rangers chalked up the worst ever performance in the tournament across six games, the Dutchman did make an indelible mark in Rangers’ history by taking the side to the Europa League final earlier that calendar year.
That narrow loss on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt also preceded aggregate victories over Union Saint-Gilloise and PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League qualifiers.
What followed — home and away humblings at the hands of Liverpool, Ajax and Napoli — may have been a tough watch for the light blue legions. But Van Bronckhorst did at least get the team that far and earned the club significant riches for their troubles. Russell Martin did not.
Many of those who were championing Steven Gerrard for a return to Glasgow before Martin was unveiled in June based their arguments on the progress Rangers made in Europe under the Englishman.
This was unquestionably significant. It bought him time and patience which led to the capturing of the Premiership title in 2021.
Gerrard could hardly have come in at a time when the club’s standing in Europe was lower. The previous season, their first continental adventure in six years, had been mortifying.
Steven Gerrard’s results in Europe bought him some time in the eyes of the Rangers support
Defeated 2-1 on aggregate by Progres Niederkorn of Luxembourg, plankton in UEFA’s deep waters, the great return ended with Pedro Caixinha standing in shrubbery arguing with irate travelling supporters. This was not how a reprise of European football had been billed in the brochure.
For Gerrard to then bulldoze his way through no fewer than four qualifiers — Shkupi, Osijek, Maribor and Ufa — from a standing start at the outset of his tenure was quite an accomplishment.
Finishing third in a Europa League group containing Rapid Vienna, Sparta Moscow and Villarreal was no disgrace either.
He surpassed that achievement in his second season. Not only were four qualifiers again successfully negotiated, Gerrard’s men finished second in a group containing Young Boys, Porto and Feyenoord, and defeated Braga before finally going down to Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16.
His final full term at Ibrox further ballasted the club’s reputation as a force to be reckoned with again. Three qualifiers ticked off, topping a group containing Benfica, Standard Liege and Lech Poznan, defeated by Slavia Prague in the last 16.
Van Bronckhorst would benefit from inheriting a squad which had become so experienced in this field and so accustomed to succeeding in it.
Having ensured the team finished the job they’d started under Gerrard by finishing behind Lyon but ahead of Sparta Prague and Brondby, they swept all before them en route to the final in Seville — Borussia Dortmund, Red Star Belgrade, Braga and RB Leipzig — all sent packing.
Even Philippe Clement, for all his faults, had his moments to cherish. An away win to Real Betis came as Rangers won a group also comprising of Sparta Prague and Aris Limassol, with a narrow defeat to Benfica in the last 16 of the Europa proving the end of that journey.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst took the the club all the way to the Europa League final back in 2022
The Belgian’s own Ibrox odyssey ended in February, with the team sitting in eighth place of the revamped secondary European competition on the back of notable wins on the road against Nice and Malmo.
If Barry Ferguson never manages a club again, no one will be able to take a two-legged victory against Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce away from him. Athletic Bilbao were just a step too far in the last eight.
Four months on, there was nothing remotely admirable about the way Martin’s side capitulated against a fine Brugge side.
Five goals down on the night by half-time in the Jan Breydel Stadium, a rudderless visiting team were torn asunder.
The nature of the loss pushed the manager to the brink. He remains in a precarious position despite beating Hibs at the weekend to advance to the semi-finals of the Premier Sports Cup.
The first of eight opponents Martin’s side will face in this year’s Europa League, Genk are the kind of side who’ve been routinely swatted aside by Rangers managers across the past seven years.
Currently sitting 14th in a 16-team division, with just two wins from eight matches, Sunday’s home loss to champions Union Saint-Gilloise ensured Thorsten Fink’s outfit travelled to Glasgow low on morale and with rather more on their minds than Europe.
Rangers’ own dismal league form makes the return to this environment feel like a welcome change. Given the success so many of his predecessors have enjoyed on this stage in recent times, Martin badly needs to put on a show.
