Russell Martin: Rangers boss says his ‘attack’ on players after Motherwell draw ‘wasn’t personal’ but honest

August 5, 2025 GG Uncategorized 0

Russell Martin: Rangers boss says his ‘attack’ on players after Motherwell draw ‘wasn’t personal’ but honest.

Rangers failed to win on the first day of the Scottish Premiership for the third season in a row, drawing at Motherwell on Saturday; Gers were booed by travelling fans at full-time;

Martin later stated that some of his players needed to “drop their ego.” Russell Martin claims his criticism of Rangers players was “not an attack on anyone personally,” but insists he is not at the club to “play games”.

Rangers were booed off on Saturday after Motherwell earned a late 1-1 draw on the first day of the Scottish Premiership season. Martin later stated that some of his players must “drop their ego” and that the club must “work out who really wants to be all in”.

Martin refused to back down from his assessment of their performance ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League third qualifying round first leg at home against Viktoria Plzen.

“I’m just always going to be honest with the players and the supporters,” said the manager. “I’m not here to play games, be political, and all that. I work in a job that requires certain things, and when we fall short, there’s no point in hiding behind anything. “On Saturday, the fundamental problem was attitude rather than knowledge or ability.

I wasn’t emotional on Saturday; I said exactly what I meant to the players. The response has been positive.

“It’s the same old stuff I’ve said from day one, which is fight, willingness to run, to help each other out. It is hard to play for this club; it’s not for everyone, it’s not easy. You have to be a really resilient and strong person.

“The self-preservation stuff I spoke about happens throughout football. It’s really difficult when you’re having tough moments, you slip back into trying to protect yourself, but actually, that doesn’t help. I have empathy for players when it gets tough, but let’s always go back to being really horrible and hard to play against.

“We weren’t hard enough to play against on Saturday, so that’s what it came down to. There was no point in sugarcoating it; the players know what to expect. I’m really honest with them, and I was really honest with everyone else, and people can make what they want of it.”

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When asked about the players’ ego, Martin responded, “It depends how you define ego. When I say that, I’m referring to self-preservation. I don’t mean this in a bad way.

To play for this football club, you must have a certain amount of ego and edge. “To be successful here, to take the ball, and to demonstrate that you’re a good player, you must have it.

So it’s not always a bad thing. “When I talk about it on Saturday, it’s like looking around when we lose the ball, maybe throwing your arms up at each other, and things like that.And it’s like, “No, come on, you don’t have to do that anymore.” We are going to protect you.

“We’ll look after you.” Kris Boyd of Sky Sports said it was “alarming” that Martin was calling out his players so early in his tenure, while Chris Sutton said the Rangers manager was right to. Martin replied, “Gone early with what?” “There is no choice but to be honest at times and not other times.

“That’s how I feel about life in general and my job. And this has been my approach to the players for the past six years. I’ve done it a few times at other clubs and have never had to do it again.

“However, it’s the same conversation with the players.

And then, when they come in and look at everything, I believe they understand why I said it. So it is not a personal attack.” Martin went on to say, “We’re three games in, and we haven’t lost one of them, but we still have a lot to work on. The areas for improvement must be technical and tactical in nature.

While we are constantly building and changing, which can be messy, the things we need to work on cannot be mentality.”It has to be the rest of it, the details, the technical and tactical aspects. We’ll work on it together, and we’ll improve and develop, but let’s start with a strong mentality wherever we go.

“It is a learnt behaviour and habit. We need to develop better habits across the entire team and club. Habits that we can actually rely on when things get tough, rather than the entire structure collapsing and imploding.”

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