“You have to fight to get here in the first place, and we’ll keep fighting until we’re told not to.”
Defiant Rangers head coach Russell Martin insists he will not walk away from the club despite mounting pressure from the Ibrox support.
He is the first Gers boss in 47 years to fail to win any of his first five league games with defeat to Hearts, who remain unbeaten, leaving them sitting 10th in the Premiership.
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Hearts’ Lawrence Shankland scored a double to add to Rangers’ woes
The home support have made their feelings clear, with the ones remaining at full time making it clear they think his time is up.
“I don’t think I’ve ever walked away from anything in my life,” he told Sky Sports News.
“I knew coming here wouldn’t be easy. The majority didn’t want me here in the first place, which is fine, so then you have to try and change that around with results.
“At the minute all they see is the 90 minutes at the end of the week, so I understand the frustration, I’m as frustrated as anyone at the moment but we’ll be here and we’ll work until I’m told not to. It really is that simple.
“You have to fight in this industry to survive, you have to fight to get here in the first place, and we’ll keep fighting until we’re told not to.”
After crashing out of the Champions League to Club Brugge 9-1 on aggregate, sporting director Kevin Thelwell insisted Martin has the continued backing of him and the Ibrox board while stressing results need to improve quickly.
Martin himself declared they had “hit the reset button” during the international and their season would really start against Hearts.
Instead, he remains fighting to keep a job he has only had for 101 days.
Russell Martin was appointed by Kevin Thelwell and the Rangers board in June
“Keep working as hard as we ever have done until we’re told not to, it’s really that simple to keep making it really clear to the players what we’re after,” Martin added as he was asked how he could get the Rangers support back onside.
“I think as a group of players and staff we’re just not happy with the level of performance we put in and so much of that is down to managing the emotion, expectation of this place and we haven’t quite managed that yet.
“We have some really talented players in the building now, so the players we see in training to match are very different at the moment, so the gap between that is too big.
“It’s up to us to find a way to simplify that and to make sure we try and get the same energy, intensity, running that we do on the training pitch.
“That’s been probably the biggest source of frustration at the moment, but it just takes work, it takes trust with the players, they’re trying so hard, so I love them for that and the rest we just have to keep working on.”
‘Terrible, embarrassing, no way back’
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Kris Boyd reacts to Rangers losing to Hearts and feels that there’s no way back for manager Russell Martin.
Sky Sports’ Kris Boyd watched the defeat at Ibrox and does not think the Rangers board will continue to back the head coach for much longer:
“Terrible right from the start. One team looked organised defensively and in sync going forward, and that was Hearts.
“Rangers at home failed to lay a glove on Hearts and topped off with the Hearts fans singing ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ and Rangers fans joined in with it. That’s how bad it was.
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“I don’t see any way back from this for Russell Martin. You can cut new managers some slack if you can see a slight improvement game to game, but it’s actually going the other way. It’s getting worse for Rangers.
“No wins in five, sitting 10th in the league, and it’s pretty embarrassing, to say the least.
“A lot of them didn’t want Russell Martin in the first place.
Oliver Antman and Jayden Meghoma (R) were among the Rangers’ summer signings to feature against Hearts
“I think you need to allow a new manager to come in and at least bed in his ideas, but if there’s no sign of improvement, it’s not going to happen and looking at it right now, there’s only one thing going to happen.
“I don’t know if the Rangers hierarchy were at the game today, but once the fans turn it’s virtually impossible to get them back round. They’ve had enough. A lot of them left their seats early and no wonder, because if I was paying to watch that, I’d have been away as well.
“There’s no doubt that players have to shoulder some responsibility, they’re the ones once across the white line that they’ve got to go in.
Bojan Miovski has started Rangers last two Premiership games
“But they look devoid of ideas. They’ve signed [Bojan] Miovski, who, when you go back to his time at Aberdeen, looked scoring every time that Aberdeen played a game. I think he had probably two touches of the ball today.
“I think it was six new signings in the starting line up, chopping and changing. Russell Martin doesn’t know he’s strongest XI right now.
“There’s been a lot of change. If you can see slight improvement you’d maybe stick by it, but right now it’s a total opposite. Players just look all over the place.”