Rangers

There were plenty of questions from the media pack for Thelwell.

Much has been made of the appointment of his son Robbie as head of recruitment, with fans unconvinced he is qualified for the role.

However, he defended and explained the decision to bring Thelwell Jnr to Ibrox.

“It’s always uncomfortable to hear and optically I think we all agreed when we made this step to appoint Robbie that he was going to be seen in a particular way,” Thelwell said.

“The reality of the situation is that we want to bring the very best talent here to Rangers.

“My view on Robbie’s career and situation is he didn’t need my help in football.

“He’s worked at Aston Villa as a senior scout, he then moved to Norwich City as head of scouting and then got promoted to player pathways manager.

“Before we recruited him, two Premier League clubs wanted to take him. What we did right at the start of the process was talk to Patrick, Andrew and [vice-chairman] Paraag Marathe about this situation.

“I was extremely transparent and I think Robbie probably went through a more rigorous process than anybody else who’s employed by this football club.

“What I do know is that he will work 25/8 to be successful in this football club and I’m looking forward to him proving that he’s going to be an excellent employee for Rangers.”

Thelwell also defended the signing of striker Youssef Chermiti, who arrived at Rangers for a reported initial fee of £8m, having failed to score in 24 appearances for Everton.

It was Thelwell who brought the Portuguese youth international to Merseyside from Sporting – again for big money in a £15m deal.

He was asked if he stands by his multi-million pound signing, who is yet to score in seven outings for the club.

“Yes, very much so,” Thelwell said. “I think Youssef Chermiti is a player who’s got huge potential.

“I’ve never doubted him in any way, shape or form. Again, I think Danny will help to get the best out of Youssef.

“It’s very early days for him, he’s a young talent and of course with young talents they sometimes take a little bit of time.

“But I’m certain over the course of his career here he’s going to prove that he’s a very, very good player.”

The word on Rohl is wholly positive, though. Players talk at length about his many strengths. Barry Bannan says he’s the best manager he’s ever played for.

It’s not the same, but he has operated successfully in a demanding regime before. In Sheffield, before he was appointed, the team was in the grip of the worst league start in more than 150 years.

He had an owner, Chansiri, who was, to put it kindly, eccentric. He had fans in uproar over all manner of things. He had players who were not only demoralised but also unpaid at times.

So, though Rohl is only 36, he’s had experience of football’s turbulence. He’s young, but he may not be wet behind the ears. You’d hope not, for his sake. Once a defender, he was invalided out of the game with an ACL injury at 21. It takes talent and drive to do the things he has done since then.

Every Rangers fan will know the outline of his story, the assistant manager positions he held at RB Leipzig, Southampton, Bayern Munich and Germany.

He has said before that he doesn’t do dogma and is not a slave to any one system. He’s flexible, be it 4-2-3-1, 3-4-3, 4-4-1-1 or any other formation. It would appear that he’s tried them all at one time or another depending on the challenge staring him in the face.

There’s enough testimony out there about the endless hours he put in at Sheffield Wednesday and the improvement he made to the players he had – Djeidi Gassama, now at Rangers, being one of many.

The fans liked and admired him. He kept Wednesday up when most people had abandoned all hope. He got them to 12th the following season with a side high on energy and togetherness despite Chansiri-inspired mayhem behind the scenes.

The supporters didn’t want him to leave at the end of his second season in July this year, but thought he was better off out of the basket case.

He cited financial issues and a total breakdown in communication with Chansiri as the reason for a mutually agreed contract termination.

Rohl says the scale of the challenge at Rangers is part of the appeal, which is what you would expect him to say, but fans have heard too much chat from too many managers to be comforted by fighting talk.

Win games and he can be as quiet as a Trappist monk. Don’t win games and the eloquence of the greatest orator will not save him. It was ever thus.

Callum: This is becoming the worst disgrace in the history of Scottish football. When are the powers that be at Ibrox going to realise that if it is Thelwell and Stewart that continue to be the stumbling block then they have to be removed immediately? Three potential managers have turned us down in a little more than a week. Shocking and embarrassing.

Michael: Thelwell and Stewart want too much of an input into first-team affairs and this is what seems to be the breakdown. Both of them need to go. If Andrew Cavenagh and Paraag Marathe wanted Gerrard and Muscat then the deal should have happened – after all, they are the ‘bosses’.

Isobel: The club knew Muscat’s situation at the outset, so why go ahead at all if they were so desperate to get someone in ASAP? It is utter incompetence and breathtaking arrogance to believe they could get him in earlier given he was on the cusp of a second title. The whole management group including the Americans have dragged a proud club into the gutter in this continuing omnishambles. It is absolutely disgraceful and I actually feel for the players in all this, left leaderless, rudderless and hung out to dry.

Neil: It’s becoming clear that if the new manager wants control of recruitment then Thelwell is going to be the problem. Time for the owners to take control and show they are capable of running the club.

Stuart: I’ve supported this club since my late dad took me to my first game back in the late 1970s, spent thousands travelling across the UK and Europe to watch them and this is quite ‘simply the worst’ I’ve ever seen from top to bottom. Poor boardroom choices, poor management and poor recruitment. Thelwell and Stewart have to go as they’re simply filling their pockets whilst making a complete mockery of what was once a proud club.

Sonny: Sack the board. The Americans have somehow managed to turn the club into a bigger shambles than the previous administration, which I thought was impossible. We’re a laughing stock and there’s hardly an array of great candidates remaining. Embarrassing.

Brian: What a shambles and what an absolute shocker from those in charge – the blame must lie with Stewart and Thewell, who could not even make a double act as a pantomime horse. I am at a complete loss bordering on despair.

Alexander: The main problem appears to be Thelwell and Stewart. If these two are the reason we can’t get a deal finalised then get rid of them. Rangers are too big to be run in such a haphazard way. The supporters aren’t going to take much more of this nonsense, maybe an empty Ibrox and not renewing season tickets will wake the owners up.

During a 19-year playing career that yielded 123 bookings and 12 red cards, Muscat was once branded the “most hated man in football”.

Post-retirement, he revealed, external former Rangers manager Alex McLeish did not trust him to play in an Old Firm derby during his brief spell at Ibrox.

It is to the Australian’s credit that he has since gone on to somewhat shake off his hot-head image in an impressive 13 years in management.

His glowing CV attracted Rangers two years ago, but he reportedly missed out on the job when the club opted for Philippe Clement instead.

At that time, former Rangers team-mate Neil McCann told BBC Scotland that the Ibrox side would be getting someone with “presence” who “understands the league, the intensity, the rivalry and how to get the job done”.

Muscat was then first-team boss at Yokohama F Marinos, where he won 2022 J-League after taking over from Ange Postecoglou following his exit for Celtic.

He also succeeded Postecoglou at Melbourne Victory after a period working under the current Nottingham Forest head coach.

It was in Melbourne where Muscat’s managerial career began, winning the A-League Championship twice in five-and-a-half years before his move to Japan.

Runners-up spots in the J-League in 2021 and 2023 bookended his 2022 triumph in Yokohama.

Muscat became a title winner in a third different country last year in China, and he is on the verge of another with just four games remaining as his side sit top with a two-point lead.

Across his managerial tenures in Australia, Japan and China, his win rate stands at 54%, with his teams scoring an average of 1.9 goals per game while conceding 1.2.

His Shanghai Port side scored 96 times in a 30-game league-winning campaign last year.

Those numbers suggest this is a coach who can win while implementing a front-foot approach. How that translates to Scottish football is unclear, though.

In an interview with the Rio Ferdinand Presents Podcast, external, the ex-Anfield captain said there had been “five or six really interesting phone calls” since he left Saudi Arabian club Al-Ettifaq in January.

“I haven’t been ready because I haven’t got that [coaching] team set around me. And the timing hasn’t been right,” he explained.

“My daughter’s just had a baby. I’ve just become a grandad. I wasn’t ready. I haven’t got my staff ready.

“So unfortunately, those opportunities have come at the wrong time, if you like.

“But if the right call comes my way, the right club, the right challenge, and I’ve got my people set, which I will have at some point, I’ll take that challenge on because it’s in me.”

Gerrard was in charge at Ibrox from 2018 to 2021, winning the title in his last season.

“I know where I’m strong and I know there’s areas where I need good support and I need special skill sets to make me better and stronger in terms of my staff and my group,” he added.

“I felt like I had that to a tee at Rangers [with Gary McAllister and Michael Beale]. A lot of coach changes at Aston Villa and over in Saudi, I don’t think helped me from a personal point of view.

“I’d love another go at some point.

“I want to change a few things and improve a few things and come back fresh, with a few different people around myself.

“I’d love another couple of challenges doing this and that’s what I’m working on in the background at the moment.

“A few different ideas, a few different people around me.

“Now I’m enjoying family time and doing a lot of things that I haven’t been able to do. But there’s a part of me that still feels that there’s a bit of unfinished business in terms of wanting to go in and face another couple of exciting challenges.”

Those Rangers fans who are almost as old as the Campsie Fells, the hills sitting above the club training ground just north of Glasgow, will tell you that Martin was the worst manager they’ve ever known. And that’s saying something.

One of his predecessors, Pedro Caixinha, once lost to Progres Niederkorn, the fourth best team in Luxembourg at the time, and ended the night by rowing with Rangers fans while standing in a bush.

Martin’s end was chaotic. A draw at Falkirk saw fans once again screeching for his sacking, a pretty much constant and venomous refrain in recent times. He was smuggled out a back exit at the Falkirk Stadium with a police escort. It was unseemly. It couldn’t go on.

The draw with Falkirk followed on from other league draws against Motherwell, Dundee, St Mirren and Celtic. Hearts beat them at Ibrox. Brugge beat them 6-0 and 3-1 in Europe. Rangers had the devil’s own job in defeating Livingston. Every game was the football equivalent of fingernails down a blackboard. It was excruciating.

As were the Martin explanations in the aftermath. He ran the gamut. He spoke about his players being anxious and scared, he talked about them not doing the things they were doing in training and not listening to the messages they were being told. It was impossible to avoid the conclusion that Martin thought it was always the fault of others.

After the Falkirk draw, he mentioned Falkirk’s deflected goal and their artificial pitch. After the loss to Sturm Graz on Thursday night he banged on about a throw-in that went wrong and cost Rangers a goal. “Somebody didn’t do their job,” he said.

The excuses flowed like lava. The one person he singularly failed to put in the frame was himself. Ibrox turned against him in the most vicious way, He was booed on and booed off. When Rangers scored a late winner against Livingston the cry that went up from fans seconds later was about Martin. It wasn’t nice, put it that way.

When you win a game and they still want your head on a spike, there’s no coming back from that. He lasted 17 games. It doesn’t seem like a lot but in the world of the Old Firm it really is. Old Firm managers get judged early. Gordon Strachan once said that there were calls for his head after a friendly prior to his first season as Celtic manager.

Reflecting back on Van Bronckhorst’s demise, a large part of the support wanted him gone too, just not with the same ferocity Martin is experiencing.

How many might welcome him back now, or wish to go back to a time when European finals seemed achievable?

The Dutchman’s credentials clearly are valued by English Premier League-winning Liverpool boss Arne Slot, no less, who appointed him as assistant manager at Anfield this summer after a short-lived tenure at Besiktas.

High points under him, though, were balanced by uninspiring domestic displays and a failure to retain the long-awaited Scottish title that Steven Gerrard delivered.

A bruising Champions League campaign added to their woes, but, in truth, Rangers were ill-equipped to compete on that stage at that time and the financial boost was most welcome.

Former Heart of Midlothian and Dundee United head coach Robbie Neilson suggested on the Scottish Football Podcast: “Things start to spiral and we’re getting to that point now where the negativity towards the manager is definitely having an effect on the players – there’s no doubt about that.

“The only way to turn that is to win football matches. I don’t know if they’ve got the squad to win six, seven, eight in a row, but that’s the only way they’ll turn it.

“It looks like Russell Martin has taken as much pressure as he can on himself to try and get it away from the players.

“But I think at the moment it’s coming back on the players as well now because it’s got to quite an extreme stage.”

What Martin and the board are contending with are previously unseen levels of negativity, though. There’s an all-consuming crescendo of ill will stretching far and wide across the support.

Until now, those in charge have held firm, although the growing sentiment over the past weeks is that even an extended run of favourable results will not influence a support seemingly not for turning.

Might McCoist’s point add weight to the idea that sticking with Martin may bear longer-term fruits, despite the lack of evidence to support that right now?

We’ll soon find out.

Besides the small step on the road to recovery that was the Scottish Premiership win at Livingston at the weekend, Rangers haven’t managed to lose sight of the starting blocks.

In Austria, they had an opportunity to build a bit of momentum and make a case for their head coach, who remains under huge pressure.

Instead, a poor throw-in from James Tavernier was lofted forward by Dimitri Lavalee, controlled by Maurice Malone, and finished by Tomi Horvat. Seven minutes had elapsed.

If that was a defensive mishap, the second goal was a defensive calamity.

A high line at a deep free-kick was sliced open with one delightful daisy-cutter, and a scrambling Jack Butland was left blushing for a second time in the first half.

“Schoolboy stuff,” said former Rangers right-back Alan Hutton.

Two mistakes due to the Ibrox side’s mentality, according to Martin. Nothing to do with their set-up, system or style.

“The difference from the first half-hour to the next 60 minutes was too far apart really,” the head coach said. “It’s concentration, it’s mentality.

“I’m frustrated because we give away two poor goals, soft goals. We did so much work on them recently we were just not alive.

“We hurt ourselves because they didn’t create anything from open play. It’s hurtful and frustrating.”

The lack of incisiveness in Martin’s team is remarkable for a set of players put together for a relative king’s ransom.

We’re told that Rangers’ net spend this summer has been £21m, including transfer fees and loan payments. You could put a dot between the 2 and the 1 and still wonder if they’ve got value.

They had Youssef Chermiti up front, a 21-year-old brought in from Everton at a cost of £8m.

It’s easy to bash the young striker, but he didn’t lack hunger or work-rate. What he lacked was a modicum of a chance, a sniff at goal. Just one.

The life of a Rangers centre-forward is a lonely existence right now. Isolated and joyless. They’re on their own up there. Sink or sink would appear to be the range of their options.

Diomande’s moment of madness was the last thing Martin needed, but it was Martin who picked him and it was Martin who picked others who struggled to make passes.

It was Martin, again, whose management of this team produced very little threat while giving up big chances even when it was 11 versus 11.

His midfielder let him down on Thursday, and on other days and nights it was others who let him down, didn’t show enough leadership, failed to make a difference.

The cast of characters on that front is long and thunderously unimpressive.

Martin gets filleted but the Rangers players can’t escape censure here. A lot of this mess is down to the manager, but not all of it.

He said the red changed the game and he was correct, but there’s always something – players being anxious, a red card, a penalty not given, another decision given in error. There’s a fatalism about all of this.

And on Sunday they have a trip to Livingston. Plastic pitch, canny manager, physical team motivated to the high heavens. A gauntlet awaits this meek Rangers outfit.

Miovski scored 44 goals in 98 appearances for Aberdeen in a two-year spell before being sold to Girona last August.

He signed a four-year contract with the La Liga club, but he made only 16 starts and six substitute appearances, scoring four goals, last season for the side who finished 16th in the Spanish top flight.

The striker, capped 31 times for his country, came off after 43 minutes of their opening 3-1 defeat by Rayo Vallecano and was not in their squad for the 5-0 thrashing by Villarreal that followed.

Rangers were looking for forward additions after selling Hamza Igamane to Lille this week and Martin said: “His movement, intelligence and ability to score goals make him a real asset.

“He knows all about the Scottish Premiership and has a strong track record of performing and contributing in the league, so I am excited to welcome him to our squad.”

Sporting director Kevin Thelwell revealed Miovski had been “tracked closely” by Rangers, has “proven himself as a consistent goalscorer” and that his “knowledge of the Scottish Premiership is a huge advantage”.

ARLINGTON, Tex. — Adolis García, Joc Pederson and Kyle Higashioka each hit a three-run homer, Corey Seager went deep a team-leading 21st time and the Texas Rangers blew out the Angels 20-3 on Wednesday night.

García’s 17th home run highlighted a four-run first inning, Pederson made it 7-1 in the second with his seventh of the season and Seager added a two-run shot in the fourth.

Higashioka’s 10th homer for a 20-3 lead came on the last of 21 pitches — all between 30 and 40 mph — from Oswald Peraza, who moved to the mound from first base in the seventh and allowed eight runs while getting one out.

The first three homers came against Jack Kochanowicz, who was called up from triple-A Salt Lake before the game for his 23rd start in his third stint with the Angels this season.

Kochanowicz (3-11) gave up 11 runs with 10 earned — both career highs — in 3 1/3 innings. The right-hander’s ERA rose to 6.81.

Jacob Webb (5-4) pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings after Jacob Latz started a bullpen game in place of Nathan Eovaldi, who went on the injured list a day after the Rangers said the right-hander’s season was probably over due to a rotator cuff strain.

Wyatt Langford reached base all five times and scored four runs before he was replaced by a pinch-runner in the seventh.

Key moment

The Angels were leading 1-0 when García homered.

Key stat

García, Pederson and Higashioka had five RBIs apiece as the Rangers scored their most runs since a 20-6 win over Minnesota in 2011.

Up next

Angels left-hander Tyler Anderson (2-8, 4.73 ERA) is scheduled for the opener of a four-game series in Houston on Friday.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Zach Neto homered on the game’s first pitch and the Angels, with manager Ron Washington present for the first time in more than two months, beat the Texas Rangers and All-Star pitcher Jacob deGrom 4-0 on Monday night.

José Soriano (9-9) struck out six over 5⅓ innings and gave up four hits in his first start since coming off the paternity list. Four relievers finished off the Angels’ sixth shutout this season.

Washington hasn’t managed the Angels since June 19, and revealed before the game that he is recovering from quadruple bypass heart surgery eight weeks ago. He won’t return to managing this season, but wants to be with the Angels, and watched from a booth upstairs after being with them pregame.

DeGrom (10-6) is 0-4 in five starts since his last win July 22, and the right-hander was pitching for the first time in 10 days after Texas skipped his last scheduled start because of shoulder fatigue. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner struck out seven, walked two and hit a batter over five innings. He gave up two runs and three hits.

Travis d’Arnaud had an RBI single in the Angels fourth, and Luis Rengifo had an RBI double in the sixth. Logan O’Hoppe led off the ninth with his 19th homer.

Key moment: Texas was coming off consecutive shutout wins and a three-game sweep over Cleveland before Neto’s leadoff homer extended his single-season franchise record to nine. He has 22 homers overall.

Key stat: Soriano faced the minimum 12 batters through the first four innings, benefiting from double plays after surrending leadoff singles in the third and fourth innings.

Up next: A matchup of left-handers Tuesday when Yusei Kikuchi (6-8, 3.42 ERA) pitches for the Angels and Patrick Corbin (6-9, 4.61) goes for Texas.

Martin would not be drawn on left-back Jefte’s future, amid reports the Brazilian is nearing a move to Palmeiras in his homeland, or Real Betis defender Nobel Mendy, who has been linked with a move to Ibrox.

“He’s in this morning,” Martin said of Jefte.

Rangers are yet to win a domestic game this season, having drawn 1-1 with Motherwell and Dundee in their opening two Scottish Premiership fixtures.

Tuesday’s loss in Plzen was Martin’s first as Rangers boss but he has secured home wins over the Czech side and Panathinaikos as well as a draw away to the latter.

Under Philippe Clement, Rangers were knocked out of last season’s Scottish Cup by lower league opposition as Queen’s Park triumphed at Ibrox. Alloa are one tier below Queen’s Park in League 1 and have won six out of seven games this term.

“It was last season, it’s completely gone some of them were probably part of that, I don’t see any benefit in me bringing it up, really,” Martin commented on the Queen’s Park result.

“We focus on this game but being better from Tuesday.”

It was obvious why Martin was unhappy. In Plzen, Rangers conceded 27 shots, a staggering 21 of them coming from inside their penalty area.

As a result, the Czech side ended with an expected goals rating of 3.31, with Butland making eight saves, with the one to deny Prince Adu truly world class.

Given Rangers’ impressive first-leg performance, a one-off poor display with a comfortable 3-0 aggregate lead could be forgiven given the end result.

But early in the season, it has been a pattern. Rangers have conceded 97 shots in their six games so far, an average of 16 per game.

Had Plzen, Panithinaikos, Motherwell, or even Dundee been more clinical then it could easily be a different story in this nascent campaign.

“Plzen had four 100% chances and took one of them – and they all came from Rangers’ mistakes,” former Rangers midfielder Ian McCall said on Sportsound.

“They were shoddy and shabby, but the name of the game is getting into the next round.

“There’s an awful lot of money at stake, and they’ll have a chance. But they’ll need to defend a lot better in terms of not giving the ball away in dangerous areas.”