The Rangers transfer rinse and repeat scenario Russell Martin simply cannot escape

Daily Record

3 days ago

There's something of an anomaly about the situation Rangers and their supporters find themselves faced with this summer.
The need for patience has never felt quite so warranted or so well earned as it does right now. And yet the time for understanding and for trusting in the process may already be running short.
A club that has been crying out for a summer of radical, sweeping change is finally entering into the very period of wide ranging recalibration which has been so badly needed for so long.
A broken, dysfunctional board has been thanked for its efforts and persuaded to step aside for the greater good.
In its place, a harmonious, more far-sighted regime has been installed, headed up by new owners with fresh money and contemporary ideas. In other words, this is precisely the moment these fans have been waiting for.
And yet, in so many ways, it's probably starting to feel all a little bit too much like it always tends to do at this time of year.
Another summer rebuild is underway already with the aim of overhauling a playing squad which quite patently is not fit for purpose on the back of yet another flaccid campaign of feeble underachievement.
The fans have most certainly seen this movie before.
Given the enormous size of that task – and with Champions League qualifiers now only one month away – there is a familiar sense of urgency and the need to reinstate a revolving door policy in and out of the car park at the club's Auchenhowie complex.
Which is why Rangers fans cannot be blamed if they are beginning to suspect that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
They've been asked to take this very leap of faith too many times. Their pride has been bruised by too many painful landings.
And yet here they are again, toes curled once more around the same cliff edge and anxiously monitoring developments as the latest waves of comings and goings begin to crash up against the rocks below.
It happened under Mark Warburton and Pedro Caixinha. Then Steven Gerrard had several attempts with varying degrees of success. Gio van Bronckhorst had a crack at overseeing something similar in the summer of 2022. And Michael Beale almost wrecked the joint when it was his turn 12 months later in the Summer of Sam Lammers.
This time last year Philippe Clement was entrusted with repairing the damage but the Belgian managed only to make it even worse, at a time when the men in charge couldn't oversee a minor stadium revamp, never mind an entire squad overhaul.
As a result, Rangers were rendered homeless off the pitch and spineless on it in, perhaps, the most catastrophic episode in a decade of rinse and repeat.
No wonder then that patience and trust in the process is in short supply.
That's hardly the fault of Andrew Cavenagh or of his new broom leadership group from across the pond.
But, regardless, as the club's new figureheads, the onus now falls squarely upon them to shake up all the previous plot lines. As unfair as that may seem at such an early juncture in Cavenagh's overall long term plan, it's fact nonetheless. Welcome to Scotland.
The same rule applies to newly installed manager Russell Martin. Or, head coach, to give him his actual, Americanised title.
Manager or not, Martin has the responsibility of overseeing this latest summer of change and, unfairly or not, he'll have to do so against the backdrop of so many rebuilds gone so badly wrong.
With Peterborough winger and free agent Kwame Poku believed to be among the first raft of imminent arrivals and former Norwich full-back Max Aarons lined up for a loan move from Bournemouth, the early indications point to a policy of raking around in England's basement buckets.
Harry Darling of Swansea, meanwhile, who was also believed to be one of Martin's targets, seems set to join Norwich instead.
All of this might bring around flashbacks to ten years ago when the foundations for Warburton's big summer build were being sourced predominantly from the same market - at a time when Rangers were still attempting to get back into the top tier of the Scottish game.
Again, it's incredibly unfair on Martin to have to wrestle with ghosts from Rangers past just because of the historic misjudgements and misadventures of others. But it's an unavoidable legacy issue nonetheless.
At just 39 years old - and on the back of a hugely disappointing loan spell at Ibrox during the cold-sweated madness of Graeme Murty's interim management - he's certainly not lacking in the courage department.
On the contrary, Martin must have balls of steel to want to put himself in such a position, with the odds stacked so heavily against him. And especially given that he already had the offer of a far less stressful gig at the King Power Stadium sitting on the table.
On top of it all, the delay in finalising the takeover means the Americans were already slipping so far behind the eight ball ahead of the coming campaign that Martin will need to be part magician, part miracle worker in order to fulfil Cavenagh's ambitions of making Rangers great again at the first attempt.
Should, however, it transpires that he falls short over the coming months then he'll need to conjure up even greater powers in order to survive in the head coach role for the longer term and to earn himself another shot at it all again this time next year.
Patience and time are what Martin needs most of all as he pieces this latest rebuild together. But he's an intelligent man and a deep thinker who will also be smart enough to realise the pair of them make the most unlikely bedfellows in this part of the world.
If he wanted to pocket an easier wage packet then he would have chosen a career at Leicester City. Instead, Martin chose life in Scottish football.