There are glimpses that reveal the brutal reality.
Every Old Firm manager arrives with the loud message that he feeds on the pressure, welcomes the expectation, embraces the turmoil. Quieter conversations reveal the truth, desperate moments indicate the strain.
A cup of coffee with the late, great Walter Smith on this subject was routinely illuminating. He humorously alluded to a change of toilet habits on Old Firm days but was more sombre when discussing the daily reality of his spells in charge of Rangers.
He famously said that even in the heady days of nine-in-a-row he was two defeats away from a crisis. He later conceded that this period of grace had been reduced to one match.
In his first week as Celtic manager, Gordon Strachan walked upstairs to a press conference. He told reporters this was going to be his fifth of the day. ‘It’s crazy,’ he said. It is all of that and a little bit more.
It is impossible to convey the pressures on a manager of Rangers or Celtic. Strachan had successfully dodged relegation with Coventry, enduring that awful strain, and had taken Southampton to an FA Cup final. He had also been a wonderful player in Scotland, attuned to the demands presented at Ibrox and Parkhead.
Russell Martin walks past a picture of the late, great Walter Smith at the new head coach’s Ibrox unveiling
The Rangers job can be a lonely place, as Russell Martin is about to discover
Martin receives a pat on the shoulder from chief executive Patrick Stewart at this week’s unveiling of the new boss
Smith’s career included spells as assistant to Jim McLean at Dundee United — one suspects a role with particular demands — four years as a manager of Everton and a brief spell as No 2 to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Yet he would dismiss briskly any notion that these jobs held the nerve-jangling jeopardy of the post at Ibrox.
He was sacked — ‘very nicely’, he conceded — in the wake of the failure to win ten consecutive titles. Strachan resigned after failing to win a fourth consecutive title.
The cases of Smith and Strachan illustrate both the strain and the imperatives. The simple advice to any Old Firm manager is to win. It is the execution of this at Rangers that has been the problem since the financial meltdown at the club. Since 2012, Rangers have won one domestic title.
Russell Martin steps into the job with a personal strategy of how to revive the club. He will quickly be apprised by outside sources at how quickly he must achieve this. Mark Warburton and Davie Weir were assured that consolidation in the top flight and a second-placed finish was a reasonable expectation in July 2016. They subsequently walked on to Ibrox in the shadow of banners declaring the team was ‘Going for 55’. They did not survive that season.
This is a job that has the perennial caretaker, Graeme Murty, spinning on his head, Pedro Caixinha talking from a bush, Gio Van Bronckhorst finding that reaching a Europa League final is no job protection scheme, Michael Beale descending from sound bites to gibberish and Philippe Clement doing the can-can in the wake of a penalty controversy.
It can take its toll on the other side of the city, too. Tony Mowbray was doomed from the moment he started talking about projects. Neil Lennon was consumed by circumstance. Covid and a cadre of players who wanted to move were more than enough to send him packing.
Success, though, is no guarantee of longevity. Ronny Deila won the title in both of the seasons he was in charge at Celtic. A semi-final defeat to Rangers in the Scottish Cup was his death knell.
This, again, emphasises the reality of life in Scotland. Winning is necessary, being better than one’s rival is essential.
Even managers as successful as Walter Smith and Gordon Strachan admitted to feeling the constant strain of being an Old Firm boss
Walter Smith’s numerous achievements included taking Rangers all the way to a UEFA Cup final yet the pressure of being in charge never left him
This bluntly is what Martin faces as he strides up the marble staircase in his designer trainers. There will be rational talk of overhauling the recruitment process, putting in structures, improving sports science, etc, etc. Most observers would agree that this is the only way for Rangers to progress significantly both on and off the field.
The previous policy — if it warrants such a name — has been a shambles since liquidation. There will now be an infrastructure to address this failure. Martin will play his part in this but his priority will be to put a winning team on the park. Correction: his only salvation will be to put a winning team on the park. On a Saturday. In midweek. Then on a Saturday again.
There is talk about how the intelligent and articulate Englishman will know this. There is the theory that insists that previously being a player at the club will have apprised him of the true size of the job. This is unlikely. Ally McCoist only realised the scale of the demands when in situ. Mowbray at Celtic, curiously, never seemed to grasp it. Even in the wake of a 4-0 defeat in Paisley on a chilly night in 2010, he was chuntering on about taking it on the chin and moving on. He did. He cleared his locker the next day.
I interviewed Martin five years ago. He was open, insightful about success and failure in his life. He spoke about how his father’s gambling had led to the loss of the family home, how ulcerative colitis had blighted his career and then how his spell as a player at Rangers had unravelled. ‘I didn’t do myself justice,’ he admitted. ‘I am gutted about that.’
He was then at MK Dons as manager. He is now at Rangers as manager. The gulf is huge. But he has led a team to promotion from the Championship and has coached Southampton in the Premier League, admittedly a side that was unsurprisingly relegated.
He is an intelligent and respected coach. He is an interesting speaker. But his future now rests purely on results. Modern coaches speak about process and performance. Martin has to acknowledge that this will not wash for the majority of supporters. His survival rests on whether he ‘gets it’.
His teacher in this regard must be Monsieur Clement. He was, it seemed, an astute appointment, given a c.v. that boasted three Belgian titles with two different clubs. But he never ‘got it’. One cannot talk of shots on target after a 3-0 defeat by Celtic. One cannot merely talk of ‘frustration’ after a defeat at home to Queen’s Park in the Scottish Cup. And one must resist any temptation to do the can-can.
Words, of course, will not save Martin. But they can add to the atmosphere of stress and siege. He needs to be advised in depth about the demands that will be placed on him in terms of interviews and how he should respond.
Michael Beale was one of many managers who have found the strain of being in charge at Rangers too much
Tony Mowbray never really seemed to grasp what it meant to be Celtic boss until a 4-0 defeat to St MIrren saw him sacked
Ultimately, this will be helpful rather than completely protective. Public relations, after all, is superficial. Winning is the core.
However, if Martin seeks inspiration he can glance across the Clyde. Martin O’Neill arrived at Celtic in 2000 with the accepted — if unscientifically proven — belief that the Parkhead club was five years behind Rangers. His team blew away Rangers in the first derby and went on to win a treble that season.
Ange Postecoglou stepped out of a jet alone in the summer of 2021. He was lampooned by some. There was no need to recruit a gaggle of trumpeters for a fanfare down the Celtic way. He won five out of the six domestic trophies he contested. He quickly introduced a style that was attractive and successful.
Martin could, though, look closer to home. The aforementioned Walter Smith came back to Rangers in 2007 after the reign of Paul Le Guen ended in the same manner as a fuel tanker falling off a cliff. Smith then won three successive titles.
The immediate turnaround in these cases was down to the clear diktats of the managers and their recruitment. O’Neill, Smith and Postecoglou knew the type of player they wanted and brought them in. They then won games. It all sounds so simple.
The only problem is that it must be done with purpose and relentless speed. It is akin to cycling across the Niagara Falls at 60mph on a moped with dodgy steering and shiny tyres. The propensity for failure is immense but the exhilaration of the challenge is attractive for such characters as Martin. That tightrope starts next month with Champions League qualifiers. Yes, next month.
Russell Martin, pictured with sporting director Kevin Thelwell, is now the man in the hot seat at Rangers
Martin spoke about being a Rangers player for a short period but even that experience won’t prepare him for what lies ahead as head coach
The adrenaline will carry him through initially. He will, of course, need more to triumph. In that interview in 2020, Martin talked about how failure had been his best teacher.
‘I believe failure can be the best thing that happens at times. I have learned the most from failure,’ he said. This was sincere and was illustrated by examples. But this belief must be refined if not recanted at Ibrox. Failure for Rangers is finishing second. This may be unfair, even unreasonable. But so is my leccy bill.
The only thing Martin will learn from failure in Glasgow is how to update his c.v. for his next job interview. Harsh, but true.
He will give it his all, aided by new owners and an updated infrastructure. There will be a modern presence at Ibrox and Auchenhowie but the old truths hold sway. Again, he needs to win but he would also welcome another essential.
A mate and colleague of Walter Smith was once asked what was essential to success as a manager. ‘Luck,’ replied Sir Alex Ferguson. This applied to the genius from Govan. It is surely needed by the aspirant from England.
