17 Aug 2025 09:25:33
EHL, I was told when we were recruiting for a new manager that Ancelotti was the favourite, going right into the last round of interviews. I can only presume he decided it wasn't right for him or RM pipped him with a really good impression.
My question is, we have an analytical department that would create reports on opposition teams, was the same department asked to review RM or any other previous managers teams and setup?
I appreciate that wouldn't have been possible with Ancelotti but fairly straightforward with Martin, and other previous managers.
The reason I ask is, I can only see this RM project going one way and out of a job by November and hopefully not, but potentially costing us millions again.
If it wasn't then this is a major mistake by the club having that department available and not utilising it, we could have potentially seen this bullet coming and dodged it!
17 Aug 2025 10:23:23
Zikos, the screening and analysis of candidates was carried out by an external recruitment specialist - we wouldn't have the expertise for this in house.
I know there were millions of posts at the time, all with different views on what was happening, however if you remember I was pretty consistent with my messaging and I stand by this.
Following the various screening processes we had a shortlist of 2 that was expanded to 3 at the request of Thelwell as he wanted to consider slightly different search parameters.
The original two were German and an Italian - so I believe Martin was the additional candidate, with Ancelotti and Rohl being the original 2.
Following the first round of interviews, Martin was the preference and had agreed to join in principle within a week - however there was a long running dispute over the make up of his backroom team - which almost opened the door for Ancelotti.
Martin eventually conceded and the rest is history.
17 Aug 2025 10:37:29
Firstly I'd like to say I still back the manager and have said from day one we need patience. if we need to sack him yes will cost some to pay him off but we've signed some good players so any potential new manager would have a good squad to work with with several sellable assets we are in a good place imo.
17 Aug 2025 10:41:52
I still think Farioli was our best option, that is if we actually did interview him and wanted him as our manager?
The timing of him leaving Ajax by his own choice much to the dismay of the Ajax board, and us needing an ambitious quality manager with excellent tactics, was perfect, but he took the Porto Job instead after we appointed Martin.
If we continue the way we have been performing since martin came in
Then Celtic will run right through us, as we know they will overload our box and our defence is our achilles heel.
Better teams than we have faced yet will take full advantage of our defensive errors starting from the coming Brugge match.
our best CB is out for both those matches.
If we make it to the group stages we will get slaughtered if we get a tough group playing the way we have.
17 Aug 2025 10:45:51
So what you're saying is this is all on thelwell ehl? Maybe we should have left to the people outside as I can't see this working but I hope I am 100% wrong.
17 Aug 2025 10:51:09
God only knows what Thelwell saw in Martin.
We were warned what to expect from him if he got the job. We're seeing exactly that!
I don't know what the other two candidates would have been like, but they surely couldn't have been any worse than Martin.
17 Aug 2025 10:50:09
Massive mistake by the board, and if thelwell is the one who recommended Martin then he has to be seriously considered for the sack aswell.
Absolute disaster we're watching play out here.
While we all want him to succeed and therefore give it time, is it not more sensible to recognise the fact there has been a massive mistake made early and rectify it right away than let the inevitable play out the damage be worse.
17 Aug 2025 11:00:11
I'm not a fan of RM, but if we sack him, who do we bring in, yes good squad of players availiable, but will that be enough to entice someone with our recent record of dismissals. Its up to him to adjust accordingly to get results and prove us wrong.
17 Aug 2025 11:25:37
EHL, not sure if I misunderstand or not, but I wouldn't have thought a recruitment special-ist would be able to give in depth analysis of football setups or would they?
What I'm getting at, is if we have a football analysis dept, were they tasked with analysing Southampton and Swansea to see what kind of manager we were getting?
17 Aug 2025 11:43:37
Fork I think what we do is is get him out of the door immediately put Ferguson back in charge for maybe 2 -3 games and look through unemployed managers and give the best candidate til the end of the season to earn a contract.
No point delaying the inevitable
I've never understood that ye know, once it's gone wrong it's gone wrong so change it. Don't watch it fet worse to justify it.
17 Aug 2025 11:49:44
Zikos, various functions within the club would have contributed to the role requirements that were supplied to the recruitment firm (who specialise in the recruitment of senior roles across a lot of sports) and this would have been used in the screening process.
In preparation for the interviews, our team will have done their homework on the candidates in order to ensure the interview is as robust as possible - including questions relating to current or previous roles.
Let's not kid ourselves on though, if Martin and Thelwell connected on a personal level and shared a common vision in terms of football then that's what's more often than not always interviews - I believe it's called mirror bias.
17 Aug 2025 11:54:45
I've said since the start I had major misgivings about Stewart and esp Thirwell and yet to be convinced by them apart from Martin.
17 Aug 2025 11:56:53
Recruiting agencies do it all the time. I'm sure there is special-ist that would do that. I do think Martin and Thelwell will be 1 year wonders. We need a pragmatic approach on the side lines whilst utilising data driven analysis to ensure best approach. The issue is, using the data, getting the wrong results and then using the same data and same approach to get a different result, thus as EHL has said, do we keep buying players. that's what we're doing.
17 Aug 2025 12:00:19
Forgot to add. Is data used to sign players to win games or create a sell on value. ??.
17 Aug 2025 12:07:47
I heard Russell Martin was Thelwell's choice.
17 Aug 2025 12:35:22
Russell Martin needs to go now. Time isn't going to fix the fact he is a completely incompetent manager and sitting back and blindly supporting him as he walks us into the abyss doesn't make anyone a better fan in my opinion. At the end of the day we've all seen this movie before and we know how it ends. I understand at some point someone has to be given time but that person isn't Martin. He struggled to beat Alloa.
17 Aug 2025 12:35:31
I'll never understand the Thelwell decision. The guy was being shown the door at Everton after they decided they were trying to get to the next level. If they could barely get into Europe, what made us think Thelwell had the capacity to do the job for us?
Purdy might be the only positive from this and he'll ultimately follow Thelwell to his next gig anyway.
17 Aug 2025 12:35:50
Bring back Ferguson, Jesus wept, no thanks.
Fork you are right it's up to him to change but you know and I know he won't change the way he plays. Yes his team scored a lot of goals in championship 87 approx they let in 67 also ?.
17 Aug 2025 12:40:57
Kasier, Stewart hasn't done anything wrong.
17 Aug 2025 12:42:09
Ferguson should be nowhere near the dugout out at Ibrox again.
17 Aug 2025 12:45:33
People that understand football running football clubs, quite uncommon, they must ask people to do jobs they can't do themselves, I'm sure we have all worked with these types . Often you end up with more staff than the Olympics to get the work done . Some club somewhere must have a director of directors we should consider a special-ist director of Left footed players. or maybe 2 footed players.
17 Aug 2025 12:49:08
Its all wrong from the top to many English who think anyone at championship level will do it easy up here look at the chain Patrick stewet who has been down in england with Manchester united then brings in theiwell who is English come from everton knows mainly just the English market who then brings in martiin who only really knows the english leagues who then starts building a squad from the english Lower leagues its a disaster waiting to happen i'd much rather have clemont and koppen
when martin leaves we will be in a worse situation than ever he will run are best players out the club by playing them in stupid systems and by making them unhappy and we will be left with a squad of loans and hopless lower English leauge players with very little value.
17 Aug 2025 12:56:10
Not much love or support for our manager is there.
17 Aug 2025 13:10:30
RM is going nowhere. He will get the season at least. These owners never buckled when Farke was under serious pressure and they won't buckle here.
10yrs plus of rubbish was never getting fixed in a few months in 1 transfer window ….
And all the moaning about it won't make a blind bit of difference. As much as I didn't fancy RM I'm prepared to give him longer than 3 weeks into a domestic season. Let's see what the squad looks like when the window closes and give him until the new year at least.
17 Aug 2025 13:17:05
You have to earn respect RM has no every game is a borefest, yesterday i thought this was his chance to get fans onboard first division team at home a chance to go out there and play football attack at pace but no its more possession football pass pass till the crowd are half asleep I've had enough of his tactics i go to be entertained but sadly its a borefest.
17 Aug 2025 13:23:34
Barcelona It could be his weekly bull, I might be wrong .
17 Aug 2025 13:36:20
Barry Ferguson is a Rangers Legend but he's not a football manager.
There are young managers out there like Rose and Terzic looking for a job, give one of them it til the end of the season and see what happens.
17 Aug 2025 13:35:29
Laudruphagi, Which centre back is out of both the Brugge and the OF games? I don't know who you consider to be our best CB but I'm not aware of any of current three missing these games .
17 Aug 2025 13:40:57
? all this data driven approach is pure sh##e is Martindale the worst manager in the league because he got Livingston relegated last season. Then he got them back up on a shoe string budget data can be read and construed in different ways you can also fudge bits of data to make stats look better. F##k the data just get these lazy persons out doing their job. Get them to watch the managers games go talk to ex players coaches F##k me it's no rocket science. The search for a new manager should of been handled 100 percent in house.
17 Aug 2025 13:48:13
PaulyDon, I don't think that we were in a position to meet either Rose or Terzic demands.
Danny Rohl is currently available though - so I would watch that one with interest.
17 Aug 2025 14:05:43
It's depressing EHL, but aye I noticed Rohl was still unemployed too, could be interesting.
17 Aug 2025 14:07:12
Do tell EHL?.
17 Aug 2025 14:46:43
Yes Ehl. Very interesting comment mate.
17 Aug 2025 15:19:06
I don't think he's hinting at anything to do with Rohl. Just that we were apparently interested in him and he's now out of work.
17 Aug 2025 15:30:16
Guys i know we're all concerned and hurting as Rangers supporters just now and are desperate to see improvement and providing a massive challenge to them across the road. Like the majority i admit that Russell Martin wasn't my first choice to replace clement as our next permanent manager, but we have to give this more time to allow martin to rebuild and see where we are at the turn of the year ?If we don't see steady improvement by then that's a different story and martin would lucky to survive until the end of the season, if that indeed was the case but it's way too early to be looking to change our manager again, now ?My choice even before clement got the job was kevin muscat and imo it was a mistake not appointing muscat instead of appointing clement, but that ship has sailed now unfortunately ☹️I also liked the idea of marco rose or kjetil knutsen being appointed our manager but it hasn't happened, so i'm prepared to get behind Russell Martin for short to medium term in the hope of improvement and then that would kick into longer term ?But we must start to see continual improvement ?.
17 Aug 2025 15:36:21
You did always say EHL, that danny rohl was being considered by Rangers mate ? Just a question here for you EHL ?In your opinion mate if we don't see steady improvement and god i hope we do ?do you think Russell Martin will still be our manager at the turn of the year ?.
17 Aug 2025 15:42:16
I believe we missed a huge opportunity in tge recruitment of a manager, it goes back to the appointment of Clement, who was preferred to Oliver Glasner he was also in the running for the Rangers job before he joined Crystal Palace in February 2024. The right manager is critical to the future success off a club.
17 Aug 2025 16:28:48
There were lots of people on here who clearly stated they didn't want RM or he wasn't the right choice ( I was one! ) Everything that was said would happen with his 'philosophy' and 'system's seems horrifyingly coming true.
I think I will chill out, off the pages, for the next 3 or 4 games, it could be a nightmare OR could be the making of the season for us, we will see?
17 Aug 2025 16:30:17
Martin's resume is awful. Where in any of his previous positions did potential Rangers manager shine out? I'm sorry he is a mid table journeyman.
17 Aug 2025 16:38:25
Get the impression EHL wants Russell Martin gone? The guy deserves a chance ✌️??.
17 Aug 2025 17:15:33
RFC martindale had the biggest budget in the championship last year so wasn't a shoestring compared to other teams.
17 Aug 2025 18:04:57
I'd be happy to sack marring and thelwell. I think the players we've brought in are good. I'm happy with most. I do feel we need an experienced centra back though.
Unhappy woth treatment of nsiala and raskin so far.
Unhappy at not getting max Johnston.
Unhappy at not bidding for Lewis Ferguson.
I'd give Knutson thw job and let him do it his way, whicj is without a director of football I believe? ASA is that correct,?
17 Aug 2025 18:31:07
In the spirit of accuracy mirror bias is something entirely different EHL. You're talking about affinity bias.
17 Aug 2025 18:40:46
If we lose to Brugge midweek, then the next 3 games St Mirren, Brugge and Celtic in the Old Firm game become critical for Russell Martin tenure at Rangers. Just my opinion but if we lose 3 of the next four fixtures, Russell Martins position becomes untenable.
17 Aug 2025 18:54:04
NothingSpecial -
"Mirror bias in recruitment, also known as affinity bias, occurs when recruiters favor candidates who resemble themselves, leading to a preference for individuals with similar backgrounds, experiences, or even personalities. This unconscious bias can hinder diversity and inclusion efforts by creating an echo chamber where only individuals who fit a certain mold are considered, potentially overlooking more qualified and diverse candidates."
17 Aug 2025 19:33:39
I've listened to Stewart once, that was plenty .
17 Aug 2025 19:41:32
Happens all the time. Even as Individuals we steer towards people who mirror our beliefs, personalities and hobbies. In essence he's picked a yes man and an easier transition for his role.
17 Aug 2025 20:40:43
I don't like Stewart either.
17 Aug 2025 20:22:38
Treatment of Raskin? Could you elaborate Stevie.
17 Aug 2025 20:54:43
If mirror bias did happen, surely we needed more than one person making the decision.
17 Aug 2025 21:44:19
Is Clement still available?
Would take him back without hesitation. He would excel with this group imo. He'd need to clear out the "leadership group" that went behind his back to the board though.
18 Aug 2025 00:05:44
Personally i think martin full of ? and its all buzzWords seriously how can a crappy footballer defender even know how to build good attacking team surely ex attacking players would have a better idea how to build an attacking team.
And i know there are cases but in the whole i think it stands to reason.
I just don't get it with martin bombs out curtis after boy performs for him and he did not look happy after his goal either pushes raskin to another position idiotic keeps playing dowell when clearly not good enough and also appears to be some bother with his methods
I respect its his way or nothing that's fine but you got to make it work and stop complaining its the players qhen its your job to get the message across your the coach do your job and get on with it.
Sorry went a bit rantish.
18 Aug 2025 09:44:32
For me listening to interviews for how Martin and indeed the players have said the manager wants us to play and the way we are playing just doesn't fit. I don't know if it is the fact its a new manager looking to play in a different way bringing in a lot of new players that need time to settle and adjust that is causing it or if it's just not working. The players we have brought in all have looked pretty decent signings and our permanent players have all looked like bargains so far. I think this could maybe be a bit of a slow burn. We need to keep close to Celtic so that when we do improve we can catch them. Pretty similar start that ange had with them looks a bit laboured and slow but when the players finally got it they started flying. Can see glimpses that it could work and be an exciting style to watch just need consistency.