THE new Rangers owners vowed to make an impact when they took over in the summer.
They have done that all right, they have managed to suck the life out of the club within a few months.
The previous Ibrox board got plenty of stick but I would argue it was never this bad under their regime.
Something has to change quickly. Rangers as a club are BROKEN — from top to bottom.
You think back to the days of James Bisgrove’s spell as chief executive, when plenty of bad decisions were made.
When he bolted for the desert, the incoming Rangers owners had a chance to fix the mess he left behind and lay proper foundations.
read more rangers stories
GER DREAM JOB
‘You’ve put me on the spot!’ – Ferguson on taking Rangers manager job again
FREEBIES
Livingston vs Rangers: Get £50 in free bets for Premiership game with Betfred
Instead, the club continues to be mismanaged in every possible way. There are plenty of issues on the football side and we will get to Russell Martin in a minute.
But just look at the apathy among the fanbase and the dwindling crowds as a result.
Officially, there were 36,000 tickets sold for the Hibs game last weekend, but it looked like there were 10,000 less than that inside the stadium.
The Genk game was Rangers’ lowest European attendance since they returned to that stage.
Yes, the results and football being played under Martin is a huge reason for that.
But trust me, there is now real discontent over the way Rangers are being run these days.
A penny for Andrew Cavenagh’s thoughts as he surveyed the anger among the fanbase during his visit to Scotland.
According to Martin, the US-based owner has told him that it’s business as usual and he remains behind him.
But is Cavenagh fully aware of the disconnect between the club and the fans?
By that, I’m not solely meaning the supporters who stood outside the stadium chanting for the manager to go last Saturday.
I’m talking about the corporates and business people who plough a lot of money into the club.
If Cavenagh is truly being given the full picture about how unhappy they are, then he will realise things are worse than he could have imagined.
Unless there is change, the crowds will continue to go down and revenue from investors and hospitality will drop.
That doesn’t just mean getting rid of Martin. There are plenty others inside Ibrox who need to start delivering.
Remember Patrick Stewart’s ‘root and branch review’? Does anyone know what happened to that?
I’ve heard a lot of stories of people being unhappy behind the scenes, while other good staff members have already left.
The review was announced in January and the Sportsology company were then hired to front it up.
But here we are at the end of September and the fans are still waiting on the outcome to be made public.
We haven’t heard from Stewart for a while as Sporting director Kevin Thelwell has been doing the talking recently.
But chances are he will now be keeping his head down after he and sidekick Dan Purdy oversaw a disastrous summer of recruitment. Again, I would argue that the £20million net spent in the transfer window was worse than a lot of what happened under the previous board.
There are all manner of question marks over so many players who are toiling to cope.Let’s start with Thelwell’s fascination with loans and a failure to learn lessons from the past.
Rangers, as has been shown time and again, should not be developing young players for other clubs.
Mikey Moore might have loads of potential but an 18-year-old rookie from Spurs is not the answer.
He’s not alone and by bringing in so many loans, Rangers are just piling up problems for next summer.
Thelwell said he and Purdy focused on the English market because they know it so well.
Really? If that’s the case then how have they managed to bring in so many players who are not up to it.
On this front, I do have sympathy for Martin because I don’t believe for a second that he was behind all of the signings.
The likes of Jayden Meghoma, Max Aarons and Joe Rothwell worked with him in the past and were his picks.
But if you’d told Martin that he had £8m to spend on a striker, I do not think for a second he would have signed Youssef Chermiti.
Thelwell has now spent over £20m to bring the forward to Everton and Rangers — and I don’t see anything to justify his price tag.
Chermiti was poor against Genk but he wasn’t alone. And spare me all this, ‘The red card changed the game’ nonsense.
Genk should have been 2-0 up before Mohamed Diomande lost the plot and they looked like scoring on every attack.
I have seen countless Rangers teams play with ten men and make life difficult for their opponents.
Let’s be honest, Genk are a bang average Europa League side who have been poor all season.
Martin was just making excuses at full-time and in the eyes of the supporters, it’s a matter of time before he goes.
He will limp on to Livingston but the fans have made up their minds and want him out.
Yet what about the hierarchy who embarked on a long recruitment process to appoint him?
Stewart, Thelwell and Co. spent months searching for a boss and came up with Martin and Davide Ancelotti as their preferred candidates.
Forget about the manager for a second. Questions need to be asked about their ability to lead Rangers forward.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
UPGRADE PLANS
Major change to popular Glasgow shopping centre as iconic feature demolished
CAMP UNDER FIRE
Moment rammy erupts between African tribe & angry locals in Scots forest
Cavenagh has entrusted them to make big calls and they have failed miserably.
Is it any wonder that more and more Rangers fans are asking when they will also be held accountable?
Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
