Russell Martin: Rangers appoint ex-Southampton, Swansea & MK Dons boss as new head coach on three-year deal | Football News

Rangers have named Russell Martin as the club’s new head coach.

The 39-year-old saw off competition from the likes of former Ibrox boss Steven Gerrard and Carlo Ancelotti’s son Davide, who was assistant at Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton and Real Madrid.

Martin is the permanent successor to Philippe Clement, who was sacked in February, with former captain Barry Ferguson taking the team for the final months of last season.

He has signed a three-year deal at Rangers, who are under new ownership following a US takeover led by Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises.

Martin returns to the club where he spent five months on loan as a player in 2018. He was previously boss at MK Dons, Swansea and most recently Southampton, where he was sacked last December.

Assisting the former Scotland international at Ibrox will be Matt Gill, who worked under Martin at Swansea and Southampton.

The 44-year-old enjoyed a 17-year playing career spanning more than 500 appearances for clubs including Peterborough, Exeter and Bristol Rovers, as well as Norwich, where he and Martin were team-mates between 2009 and 2011.

Rhys Owen has also joined Rangers as part of Martin’s backroom team, taking up the role of performance coach, with the pair having previously worked together at Southampton.

Martin: I know what this club demands

Speaking following his appointment, Martin said: “It is a privilege to be named head coach of Rangers Football Club at the beginning of this exciting new chapter.

“I know what this club demands. From my time here, I had a taste of how special this club is, the expectation, the passion and the history. Now, as I return, I’m determined to bring success back, for the supporters, the players, and everyone inside this club.

“I’m here to set standards, work hard and do my very best to earn the respect of the Rangers fans.

“There’s a lot to be done, but the goal is clear: win matches, win trophies, and give Rangers fans a team that they can be proud of. We want to play with bravery, to take the ball, to be aggressive, and to stand up in the big moments.

“Preparations for pre-season are already under way. I look forward to meeting the players and building a squad that our fans can believe in.”

‘Martin was the standout candidate’

Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart, who led the search along with sporting director Kevin Thelwell, said Martin was the “standout candidate” and that “this appointment is about building a winning team and a strong culture”.

Thelwell, meanwhile, said: “Russell comes to Rangers with hard-earned experience. His time in the Premier League has sharpened his approach, both tactically and personally. He’s better for it, and we believe that will translate into the kind of leadership and performance our supporters expect.

“His teams play dominant football, they control the ball, dictate the tempo and impose themselves physically. They press aggressively and work relentlessly off the ball. These are all characteristics that we believe are required to be successful at home, away, and abroad.”

New Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh added that it was “a thorough, rigorous process” and Martin’s appointment “embodies the club’s goal of attracting top talent, empowering them, and supporting them.”

What can Rangers fans expect from Martin?

Cleaning toilets before school, night shifts in a supermarket, becoming a student of Buddhism and being vegan are not things you would expect to write about a ‘normal’ football manager. However, to understand Russell Martin the coach you need to know Russell Martin the person.

He has made no secret of a complex relationship with his Scottish father. He said there was “too much violence” from his dad towards his mum Kerry and told The Times in 2023 his “whole world revolved around proving him wrong and making him proud.”

Practising Buddhism helped him throughout his career “in terms of visualisation, manifestation and goal setting” while he was a “strict vegan for five or six years” to help combat inflammation from ulcerative colitis, although he now goes “in and out.”

And it was clear Martin had coaching aspirations as a teenager, as he struggled to make it as a professional player.

“I had started my badges at college at 17 because I thought that would be my way into the game,” he told Sky Sports earlier this year.

“I didn’t think I was going to have a career. I wasn’t signed at a pro club, I was playing non-league and playing for my college, and I was going on a scholarship to America to study.

“I still had a dream of becoming a professional but I just loved watching football, analysing it and I had a real idea of what I wanted to do with a team. So I thought that would be my way in, then fortunately I got a break at Wycombe.”

While Martin admits taking something from all the managers he played under, he wanted to be his “own person” as “to really convince someone to do something, you have to really believe in it.”

“Most of my career I spent writing stuff down in notebooks, doing my badges on the bus and the lads hammering me when I’m getting the laptop out. I tried to take as much as I could from every single one.”

What came from that was a very possession-based style of play, with a refusal to change his beliefs.

“We were criticised at times for playing out from the back [at MK Dons] but I had to show them all the good stuff they were doing and that the risk and reward was in our favour,” he said.

“The goalkeeper’s a big part of that and creating the spare man. It’s always about finding the spare man early on in the concept and then take territory and play forward, but always with purpose.”

Under Martin, they set a British record with a goal scored from a 56-pass move in March 2021.

It was the same at Swansea, lots of plaudits for the system, but while they made strides, he won less than 38 per cent of his games at both clubs.

After initial success at Southampton, Martin said his “biggest challenge” was convincing the players they “could do it regularly in the Premier League.”

His philosophy ultimately cost him his job at Saints but it’s a style the Rangers fans can expect him to stick with as “the coach’s job is to find a problem and find a solution or work out what the next problem is going to be.”

Click here to read more about Martin’s journey in football, the style his teams play and more.

‘Martin ticks the most boxes for Rangers’

Former Rangers striker Steven Naismith, who played over 50 times alongside Martin at Norwich and Scotland, believes the appointment is the right choice.

He told Sky Sports News: “Developing players, the recruitment side of it and attacking football [are all issues] that have been labelled at the team for too long. I think they’re all strengths that Russell brings.

“I think in every name that’s been mentioned and linked towards the job, I think he probably ticks the most boxes for what’s required at the club at this moment.

“The most common thing I would imagine everybody’s heard is the leadership aspect. That was very clear from the first time I played with him.

“I know he spoke about his people skills and things like that. He knows how to get the best out of players, staff and those behind the scenes at Norwich. He was a big part of what their success was, as a club.

“His knowledge and his intelligence of the game is really good. I think even way back then when we were in our mid-twenties, he had a hunger to learn about the game.

“He had a bold style that he believed in. As players, you sit and think, how realistic is that? He’s shown it from MK Dons to Swansea to Southampton. He’s been clear with it.

“He’s produced performances and results that have gotten a quick path to the Premier League as a manager, which is very impressive.

“He’s a brilliant communicator. I think that’s been the clearest thing at each club very quickly. That style, you can identify it, you can see it. He’s intelligent. He’s somebody who learns from mistakes. He’s done that as a player.

“You listen to any player that’s worked under him, it’s all very positive because of that communication. He’s demanding, but he comes across at the right moment, in the right way, whether it’s putting his arm around a player or being a bit more aggressive with what he wants.

“I think the communication skills are massively important because I think the Rangers fans and Scottish fans in general, they’re no mugs. Talking around about a subject doesn’t wash, they want straight to the point.

“I think a few of the fans at Rangers will remember him as a player and that’s probably not the best image of him. As a coach, he’s the opposite of what he was as a player. He was a defender, somebody who obviously tried to stilt the game coming to the end of his career.

“But as a coach, he’s a forward-thinking coach. He’s an attacking-minded coach. That, for me, is the biggest benefit and probably the biggest thing that gives you hope going into a club where you play against a low-block the majority of the time.

“Him being a player here will have helped. He was at the club at a really tough time and he’ll know what’s coming if things aren’t working.

“Russell is a strong, strong character. I think he never hides. He never backs away from a challenge.”

Key dates for Rangers

Martin and his Rangers squad will return to pre-season training on June 23 ahead of the new campaign.

His first taste of the Ibrox dugout then comes on July 6 when they host Club Brugge, who finished second in the Belgian Pro League, in their first pre-season friendly.

The squad then depart for a training camp from July 7 at St George’s Park.

Rangers then face their first Champions League qualifiers, with the first leg on July 22/23 and the return tie on July 29/30.

Middlesbrough – who finished 10th in the Sky Bet Championship – then visit Ibrox on July 26.

The Scottish Premiership campaign gets underway on August 2/3 – with fixtures for the new season out on June 20 – live on Sky Sports News.