The former Scotland midfielder has offered his opinion on Rangers’ hiring of Martin and expressed surprise that the team did not target Shankland this summer. According to a former Scotland legend, Rangers head coach Russell Martin will have to contend with the Ibrox supporters this season and may need to change his style of play.
With the addition of Max Aarons, Joe Rothwell, Manuel Fernandez, Thelo Aasgaard, Lyall Cameron, and Nasser Djiga, Martin, 38, who was named Philippe Clement’s permanent replacement at Ibrox in early June, has already started to restructure the team.
In a new in-depth interview, ex-Scotland international and Liverpool midfielder Don Hutchison has revealed concern over the appointment of Martin as the new head coach in Govan though, with the 54-year-old saying he is worried about his “ultra possession” philosophy – though he admits it will be results that ultimately decide his Ibrox fate.
“Martin’s made a few good signings so far,” said Hutchison. “But if he tries to get Rangers playing more patiently, more slowly, like he did at Southampton, the fans will not take to that at all. That won’t last for five minutes, because Rangers want a high-tempo, edge-of-your-seat brand of football. The fans want to be involved, they want a connection, they want a team that plays direct and with purpose.
“I say that as a warning, but if they win 10 on the bounce and it’s boring, nobody is really going to complain. Everyone will take that right away. When you’re not winning though, then it matters. But if you speak to any manager in the world, if you speak to Mikel Arteta, and say you’ll be the dullest team in the world but you’ll be champions, they’ll take it all day long.”
Shankland surprise
Hutchison also admitted he was surprised the new Rangers boss didn’t make an attempt to sign Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland this summer, believing the ‘industrious’ forward could have been a good signing for the club.
“I really like him,” Hutchison told BestBettingSites.com. “I think he’s a good player. I just think it depends on what Russell Martin wants, so he might not have wanted to push hard for him. Maybe he was always interested in staying with Hearts if he could.
“Martin will have in his mind a certain type of player that he wants to work with, a certain type of style. But Shankland has always looked like a good player to me. I quite like the way he plays. I quite like the way he wears his heart on his sleeve, I think. I think he’s an industrious player. It’s making that step up. It’s just a question We can’t be sure that Martin saw in Shankland the kind of player he thought he needed to get a balanced side at Ibrox.”
The ex-Sunderland man also revealed how close he came to playing for Rangers himself during his long career, saying: “The closest I got to a move to either Old Firm sides was with Rangers when I was at West Ham. I never heard anything about going to Celtic.
My dad was a big Rangers supporter, and since I also played for Scotland, I was quite tempted to move up there, so there was a major pull. Rangers was obviously going to win, but since I had to choose between West Ham and Rangers, who were in the Champions League, I went with the latter. I felt I had unresolved business with West Ham because I was only there for a year during my first stint.
