Russell Martin is nearing the end of his short and unimpressive spell as Rangers head coach. A European humiliation against Club Brugge has been followed by the club’s worst league start since 1978.
Five games, four points, and no wins have left Rangers, who outspent every other Premiership side in the summer, tenth in the table after last weekend's defeat to Hearts, with the risk of being bottom by the time they face Livingston next Sunday.
For now, Martin remains in charge, but defeat to Hibernian in tomorrow’s Premier Sports Cup quarterfinal would almost certainly end his reign. Even a win may only delay the inevitable, with supporters already looking beyond him. Could the answer lie in someone who recently triumphed at Ibrox and was once tipped for the job by the late Walter Smith?
Rangers fans often cite resilience, a will to win, leadership, and tactical adaptability as essentials for the role. Above all, the job demands authority, something that defined Smith, the archetypal Rangers manager. The question is whether his former player and protégé has enough of those traits to succeed.
Back in late 2017, In late 2017, after Mark Warburton’s troubled Ibrox reign, undone by the same tactical inflexibility now associated with Martin, Smith publicly endorsed then-Aberdeen, now Hearts, boss Derek McInnes, who he had signed for Rangers in 1995, as the man for the job.
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Speaking ahead of a 6-0 Scottish Cup win over Hamilton after Warburton’s departure, live on Sky Sports, Smith said: “I'd like someone to come in that was going to bring a level of success to the club.
"I would like to see Derek take the opportunity to do that. I had him as a player and as a manager he has done a good job wherever he's gone.
"He's adapted to what he's had, and I don't think Rangers would go far wrong in attempting to get Derek."
Rangers would later appoint Pedro Caixinha to the role, who had a similarly uninspiring and short reign at the Glasgow giants as Martin has so far, but McInnes would again emerge as an option for Rangers.
This time it would be the man himself, and not the club, who would reject the move, with the former Scotland international turning down a move to Ibrox at the eleventh hour, with Rangers eventually handing interim boss Greame Murty the reigns to the end of the season before the arrival of Steven Gerrard, a man who possessed similar qualities to Smith himself.
Smith spoke with McInnes personally before he made his decision to remain at the Dons. Which the Jambos boss said helped influence his decision NOT to head to Govan.
After Smith’s sad passing in 2021, McInnes told the Daily Mail: "I did have a long chat with Walter [back in 2017]. I felt that Walter wanted me to be the Rangers manager, but he also had his concerns for me with it.
"It was his advice and, while he left me in no doubt that it was my decision, he was involved in every step of the way there. The gaffer had an influence on most of my big decisions. And when I look back now, I wish I had spoken to him more to be honest.”
This decision not to join Rangers has been held against him by most fans in periods since when his name has been touted for the job, with many feeling he had his opportunity, and once you turn down an institution such as the Gers, there is no second chance.
Only appointed at the Edinburgh club, who sit joint top of the league table, this summer and heavily backed by new Hearts investor Tony Bloom, McInnes sits in a stable, and promising role and may not even contemplate a move to the basket case that we are at the moment. That is before even taking the cost of taking him from the Maroon side so soon after his appointment into account.
But the place the club are in now, and the landscape of Scottish football. His adaptability, and pragmatic approach, as well as his extensive knowledge on how Scottish football, and Rangers work, could make him the ideal candidate to restore resilience, stability and pride to the club.