Daily Record used as Ibrox chiefs set up plan to get rid of Russell Martin

Moves are underway to ditch Russell Martin with the Ibrox owners working towards a resignation rather than a pay off.

Circulation may be dire but the old fashioned tactic of supplying detailed information to a high profile newspaper reporter to stir things up has been deployed against the Ibrox manager that is despised and detested by virtually all fans.

After losing at home to Hearts word went out to the messengers on Sunday morning that the club was standing by Martin.

That simply fan the flames of the angry bears but by midweek the moves were in place to prepare for a parting of the ways.

Keith Jackson was given the lead on the takeover from the ‘San Francisco 49ers’ earlier this year, on Tuesday’s Record Hotline he revealed that the club had started to consider successors to the vegan Buddhist in the dug-out.

Rather than distance themselves from that claim Jackson is now reporting that he has been contacted with highly rated managers ready to step in quickly to replace Martin.

Ahead of Wednesday’s Daily Record Hotline podcast Jackson reported:

Rangers have confirmed a list of managerial candidates have thrown their names into the ring in the race to replace beleaguered boss Russell Martin.

Typical of the business when a guy currently in work is struggling.

But the embattled Ibrox hierarchy remain adamant that no initial discussions have been held with any of the would-be contenders.

Except for one critical area…

A top level club source contacted Record Sport after we broke the news on Tuesday’s Hotline Live that the back-channelling has already begun with a number of highly rated managers already in the mix to take over if and when Martin is put out of his misery.

The official position of the Rangers board is that they are still backing Martin to recover from a nightmarish start to his reign as head coach – which has seen his side dumped out of the Champions League qualifiers and plummeting to 10th position in the domestic top flight table.

But they admit they have been made aware of the availability of a number of ready made replacements who have made it clear they would be willing, ready and able to step into the dugout if a decision is taken to swing the axe.

So no initial discussions have been held with successors but a top level source has contacted Jackson to reassure him that ‘a number of highly rated managers’ are on stand-by to take over after Martin’s next defeat.

While not quite as sinister as the ‘Celtic senior sources’ story handed to Roger Hannah about Brendan Rodgers it is a similar tactic designed to undermine a manager.

The Celtic boss handled that situation perfectly, he has delivered 11 more trophies than Martin and was sitting at the top of the SPFL Premiership when he took aim at the cowardly source inside Celtic trying to make life difficult.

Martin is going to get bombarded by questions at Friday’s media conference about his job prospects, now it is quite clear that he is getting undermined from within as the club owners come to terms with the level of hatred that the soccer fans have for their current manager.

After the’49GERS’ takeover was completed Paul Murray joined Jackson in the Record office for a special edition of the Hotline to explain what a right good bear he is and how he put the jigsaw together for Andrew Cavenagh’s Revolution.

By getting the news out that they are planning for life beyond Martin the club will be hoping to take some pressure off Paddy Stewart and Kev Thelwell.