My whole career has been based on proving people wrong – Rangers’ Russell Martin

New Rangers head coach Russell Martin has told hostile fans and other sceptics that he is looking to prove them wrong.

News of the 39-year-old former MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton manager’s three-year deal at Ibrox has not gone down well with some supporters.

Some remember the former Scotland defender’s unsuccessful loan period at the club in 2018 and his ill-fated spell in the English Premier League with Saints, where he was sacked with one win in the first 16 games, as well as perceived notions around his possession-based style of play, while others believed there was a more exciting aspect to Davide Ancelotti, who was also in the running.

Martin will be joined by assistant head coach Matt Gill and performance coach Rhys Owen as Rangers’ new US-led consortium of owners make key appointments in a bid to wrest power back from dominant Celtic.

Martin, sitting beside chief executive officer Patrick Stewart and new sporting director Kevin Thelwell, said: “My whole career has been based on proving people wrong, really.

“And at every level I got questioned. I got to the Premier League as a player, I wasn’t convinced I could do it, but I managed to establish myself there for a little while, I ended up playing four or five seasons there, played international football, which I’m incredibly proud of.

“So it’s the same again as a manager, I had to prove people wrong at every opportunity.

“And there’s always names in football management that are a bit more exciting than others, of course.

“But I feel after five-and-a-half years of being a manager, being a coach, being a leader in an environment, I love doing it, and I’m going to be all-in here with my energy and my love for it and passion and hopefully that will reflect on the pitch and people will see that, and at some point they will enjoy it.

“Ultimately they just want to win, and if our team is winning, I’m sure they will be happy.”

Despite not faring well in the popularity polls, Martin is well aware of the remit as successor to Philippe Clement, who left last February and was replaced until the end of the season by former Ibrox captain Barry Ferguson.

He said: “I have to win. I don’t think I’ve been the number one choice at any club I’ve been at.

“As a player from MK Dons to becoming the manager, it’s a bit of a surprise to supporters.

“To then go to Swansea, they were linked with all sorts. They had lost in the play-off final and the budget was being cut, and then we turned up from League One, and then Southampton the same.

“They had just been relegated from the Premier League, so I’m sure there were all sorts of names mentioned when I was interviewing for the job, and then I got it and by the time we’ve left every club I’ve been at, I’ve felt a real connection with the supporters.

“I felt they had been really behind us. Definitely the playing staff and the staff we’ve been working with, where we’ve been, because of the relationships we’ve formed and maintained at every club we’ve been at, and I hope this will be the same.

“And I hope people judge us on – and judge me in particular – on this moment and not when I was a player here a while ago, because it’s very, very different.”

Martin admits he wants to make up for his short loan spell as a player, which did not go the way he wanted.

He added: “When I look back on my career as a player, it’s the one thing that hurt me a lot that it didn’t go very well here, because I wasn’t quite in the right place physically to do as well as I possibly could, and it was a difficult time for the club.

“So that comes into the equation as well, I have to be really honest.

“So I’m desperate to show a different version of myself here than I did previously.”