Dealing with Southampton heat showed Russell Martin can hack Rangers

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

"I remember my debut,' he said following a national team training session at Lesser Hampden ahead of the friendly international against Iceland in Mount Florida on Friday night. 'But I can't remember him scoring against me, no. Did he? We won't mention that, because he's a good guy.'
Yet, Gunn had no problem recalling what a fine footballer, inspirational leader and cerebral thinker on the game Martin, who had just been tipped to take over as manager at Rangers when he arrived at his press conference, was when they had played together at Carrow Road at the start of his professional career.
The difficulties which Norwich experienced against the Swansea City and Southampton sides the former Scotland centre-half managed were also fresh in his mind.
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Opinion about the man who led the St Mary's Stadium outfit back into the Premier League via the end-of-season play-offs last year was sharply divided among fans of the Glasgow club. Many admitted they would have preferred Davide Ancelotti, Francesco Farioli or Steven Gerrard to succeed Philippe Clement.
But Gunn was adamant that appointing Martin, who was sacked back in December following a disappointing run of results in the English top flight, would be no own goal by Rangers.
'It's hard to compare a promoted team going into the Premier League with a team like Rangers going into European games,' he said. 'But I think he showed what he can do as a manager, not only with Southampton but with Swansea as well. He took a team that wasn't expected to do much quite far into the Championship as well.
'I think it will be a positive thing for Rangers. But, obviously, the only thing that can bring those supporters round is probably him getting in the door and starting well. That's the only thing that can happen.
"But Southampton were a tough team. We had a couple of good games against them. We saw the evolution of their team throughout the season. I think when we first played them, they were quite open. Then, when we played them again, they were a little bit more pragmatic.
'I think that shows a coach that can adapt and change the way his team plays. Watching his teams over the few years that he was there, I thought he did that. Even though some people probably said he was reluctant to change, I thought he did that quite well, especially in the Championship anyway.
(Image: Andrew Matthews) "It is a difficult league to get out of. We had the pressure of them coming down as well. A lot of the teams find it quite hard. I was there at Southampton previously and I felt it. There was a lot of pressure on him and the team and he managed to deliver.
'I don't know if he's going to go to Rangers or not, but obviously he had a spell there as a player so he kind of knows the club a little bit. I think it would be a really good thing for the Rangers, to be fair.'
Gunn always suspected that Martin, whose partner is former glamour model Lucy Pinder, who is a former member of the Green Party, who is a proponent of Buddhism and who is a vegan, was destined to move into management and his success with MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton in the past six years has not surprised him.
'I only worked with him as a player at Norwich,' he said. 'But he's a very intellectual guy. I went in there as a young goalkeeper and he helped me massively, even though he wasn't in the team every week and playing regularly. He was the captain of the club and he had good relationships with everyone in the dressing room.
'There were a few other players in that dressing room who were like that,' he said. 'Steven Naismith was there as well. But you can definitely tell on the pitch when you're playing with players who are going to go into management. They kind of start coaching whilst they're still playing, if you like, sort of organising on the pitch.
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'He was one of them. But Russell wasn't just on the pitch, he was off the pitch as well, where he had close relationships with everyone. Even though, I wasn't a regular playing in the team, he was always on hand and always upbeat and a good person to go to.
'I watch him now on the television and can see the way he wants teams to play football and what his philosophy is. I really hope whatever he goes on to in his career is successful.'
Gunn, who was released by Norwich at the end of last season, is eager to put a difficult season firmly behind him and is looking forward to featuring in both of the Scotland friendlies in the coming days and performing well for his country.
'The injuries have probably been the most challenging thing to me because I've not been injured too much in my career,' he said. 'Sometimes that's hard to deal with if you're not used to it. But I thought I dealt with it quite well. I came back, tried to come back stronger.
'Obviously, it's a different stage of my career now. I'm getting a little bit older and every year is different. From my point of view, I don't really look too much into the past. I'm more excited for the future.'