I know what Russell Martin's Rangers credibility really depends on before Champions League

Daily Record

14 hours ago

Shug has heard the verbal gymnastics Martin is using the somersault over an inconvenient truth before and it usually ends one way
My Radio Clyde colleague Andy Halliday is the Motherwell player who once held up his hand by way of an apology for scoring against Rangers in a cup tie at Hampden.
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So when he uses another part of his anatomy and publicly boots Russell Martin's backside over the Ibrox head coach's tactics – and the 'mythical' nature of his work – you know there's a serious case of diminishing credibility going on.
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The coach's credibility. Not the pundit's reputation.
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Which is why Russell really needs to think before he speaks as the man under fire from media and supporters alike, approaches the two-week spell that could shape his destiny at Ibrox.
Prior to the Champions League qualifier with Viktoria Plzen in the Czech Republic last Tuesday, Martin surveyed the start to the season up until that point and put an individual slant on it by saying his team had gone five matches in a row without defeat.
He had managed, therefore, to put a positive spin on the loss of four league points, by virtue of draws away to Motherwell and at home to Dundee.
This assessment put Russell in a world of his own due to the fact there wasn't a Rangers fan anywhere who would have used those verbal gymnastics to somersault over the inconvenient truth – that those two results were unacceptable in the grand scheme of things.
It was reminiscent of Martin's predecessor Philippe Clement when he took off on his various flights of fantasy – like calling a three-all draw with Celtic at Ibrox a 'moral victory'.
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If the Belgian had interpreted dropping four points in two league games as being part of a five-game run without defeat he would have been ridiculed and his words used in evidence against him. Martin is no different.
It's no longer a debate about his team being leaked. The conversation has turned to the leaks in his team.
Rangers' play-off round tie against Club Brugge at Ibrox on Tuesday now puts the Champions League into context for Russell in the wake of the decision to reinstate the Premiership fixture with St Mirren next weekend.
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The European game's elite competition is all very well ...
But it is of secondary importance when it comes to avoiding the potential embarrassment of falling 10 points behind Celtic in the league.
Suffering that fate at the hands of the team across the road on the other side of the city after just four Premiership matches is clearly thought to be out of the question by the Ibrox hierarchy.
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It would place an intolerable strain on Martin and create widespread unrest among the club's support.
Rangers are addressing the worst-case scenario and forfeiting a rest period in between the home leg and the away tie against Club Brugge, which will determine who enters the Champions League.
I fully understand there are other scenarios available, such as Celtic dropping points against Livingston or St Mirren defeating Rangers to render the rearrangement of that match a literally pointless exercise.
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But it is the possibility of the nuclear fallout from an Old Firm defeat, which puts a double-digit gap between the sides, that is the only reason for putting the Champions League second on Rangers list of priorities.
Martin's position, bizarre as it may seem to those not born and brought up in the Old Firm's singular environment, would become untenable in the eyes of many if a derby defeat occurred.
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An underwhelming appointment for some would become an overwhelming disappointment for most.
Andrew Cavanagh and the 49ers Enterprises consortium would come under sustained pressure to review the cataclysmic collapse of the transition from old school leadership at Ibrox to the new frontier of American ownership.
So, rather than tempt providence, the lure of the glamour that comes with mixing in the company of Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and the rest of Europe's aristocracy has taken second place to the need for a successful day out in Paisley.
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The only way I could explain the separate life form that is the Old Firm's rivalry to another radio colleague, Livingston coach Marvin Bartley, was to recount to him the story of my wedding day.
Big Marv is London born. I told him a Glasgow story. I was married on the afternoon of August 14, 1971 on the day Rangers played Celtic at Ibrox.
I had to send my best man out into the church grounds to plead with the congregation to come inside so the marriage ceremony could begin.
They were glued to transistor radios trying to find out the half-time score in Govan and were oblivious to my nuptials.
And 54 years later, the fixture like no other still takes precedence over all else. Rangers' head coach needs to absorb that lesson for his own good while fighting to win the fans' trust.