DMAA

Only played right back once last season. We don’t play a traditional right mid. So I don’t really understand this one. Looking at his stats, he seems ok. Squad filler.

Yeh, don’t disagree much with that.

Hmm. The big difference is Rogers proved he could cope taking it a level up, finishing 11th in their first season up. Martin didn’t just fail to do that, he completely flopped at that level.

People will laugh but that has actually helped me 😂 2nd in xGD is a good sign and xGA is a good bit lower than actual, which is also good. I’m still not booking the Ancelotti tattoo removal appointment yet.

Sigh. I hope the club set-up somehow mitigates the risks with Martin. Proper scouting to get him real defenders. Backroom staff who can help him stop conceding. I can’t see it though because high goals conceded is normally due to deeply embedded structural, tactical issues. Feels a bit like the Beale appointment for me. Not excited and hoping I can be proved wrong.

It’s a fair question. MK Dons Pass marks for steering them from relegation the first season and lifting them to 13th the next season. They finished 3rd after he left. Hard to judge without knowing more about it. Certainly looks a decent achievement, without being outstanding. Swansea Finished 6th and 4th the seasons before Martin, conceding 53 and 39. Martin took them from 4th and 39 GA to 15th and 68 GA (74% increase in goals conceded). Second season 10th and 64 GA. 5 points better than first season. After he left, Swansea finished 14th but only conceded a more normal 57. I’d say not really a success. Major red flags there for me too, specifically for Rangers. Southampton Newly relegated after a long time in the EPL, so definitely expected to bounce back up. Finished 4th conceding a lot more than teams around them again, 63, showing it wasn’t a Swansea problem. Gained promotion via the playoffs so of course he has to get credit for getting it over the line. And it suggests he certainly has something about him as a manager. But for me, more red flags, and I think Southampton expected top 2 having the second highest wage budget and it went down to the playoffs, which is a bit like penalties in terms of uncertainty. EPL season, won’t judge him too much other than to say he certainly didn’t surprise anyone did he? Almost record breakingly bad whilst being 17th in terms of wage budget. Is it a bad record? No. Just some red flags in my opinion, especially in terms of whether he is a good match for Rangers.

Allegedly gets it where he is, don’t think he’d expect it anywhere else.

The unknown is a concern. It would be a gamble. If we were linked to someone with a track record I’d probably favour them, hence why I’ve favoured Knutsen even time. The quotes from the Southampton fans back up what I could see in Martin’s record though. Not enough evidence that he can balance the positive style with a proper defensive structure. And not enough evidence of real success either.

Ancelotti looks strong favourite at this point imo. Worked at Everton with Purdy. Thelwell and Purdy have been in the works for a while it seems so this might be why Ancelotti is in the picture at all.

I haven’t kept up to date with English football at all I have to confess, but I thought Everton were not known for shrewdness in the transfer market. Would like to see a report card on his signings. I’m holding out hope we get a helping hand from Red Bull like Leeds have had.

I’m not too worried about that metric. I had just gone through his history and found his teams consistently concede a lot for their position in the table. The two fairest examples to use are his second season at Swansea and his promotion season at Southampton. The Swansea season he conceded about 10 more than all the teams around them in the table. The Southampton one it’s more like 15 more (which is about 35% more). Of course, that means they scored more too. But it’s put me completely off him because I don’t think it will work at Rangers. It’s actually very reminiscent of Warburton. Warburton’s achievement was actually far more impressive than Martin’s. Finished 5th as a newly promoted side. Martin had the significant advantage of being a relegated EPL side and finished 4th. Warburton had the exact same kind of record, scoring and conceding significantly more than teams around him in the table. It showed at Rangers. The positives going forward didn’t outweigh the negatives defensively.

We’ve seen good football work in this league plenty with a skint man’s version of those players. But they still need to be a certain standard and ours have been worse than Celtic’s for a while.

Definitely not Martin for me. His goals against record is diabolical. That never works at Rangers. Of course Ancelotti has no record. I haven’t researched the options to be honest, but overall I don’t like what I see in Martin’s record.

I haven’t done my research and don’t have anything to base it on really. My first choice has been Knutsen for the past 3 appointments but looks like he’ll stay where he is. Ancelotti is a gamble but a very interesting one. The fact is, anyone is a gamble. Clement had a track record of winning leagues and didn’t work out. Muscat is a good option too.

Ancelotti gets my vote.