Earn our trust- Russell Martin puts the boot into Nico Raskin

Russell Martin didn’t hold back in his criticism of Nico Raskin, some might conclude that the former Southampton boss is trying to engineer his Ibrox exit.

The pint sized midfielder is the pin up boy for the Ibrox support, after hitting form for two last season he became the best player in Scotland with a £30m price tag.

Leeds United and Wolves led the race to sign Raskin according to the loyal messengers but scoring five SPFL goals in two and a half seasons.

Raskin has been in and out of Martin’s side since the start of this season, he wasn’t allowed inside Ibrox for the match against Celtic with his exile continuing tomorrow when Hearts are the visitors.

Asked about Raskin today Martin said:

He won’t be in the squad. We’ve had lots of conversations and he’s back training with the group, which is a good step.

Every player has a duty to make sure they earn the trust of all his team-mates, the coaching staff – and staff in the building – to help us win football matches.

It’s the same for every player here. On the pitch, we have to feel trust and clarity. That’s it. The most important thing is that Nico knows why. And the players know why.

It’s between us, really. He knows and I know. It’s now on him and all the players to put themselves in the team to win football matches.

There is no need for Martin to go into so much detail on why any player isn’t involved in the matchday squad but it is a recurring theme with the current Ibrox boss.

After drawing the SPFL opener at Motherwell Martin questioned the mentality of his players, after drawing at St Mirren he decided to discuss Hamza Igamane refusing to play.

Anything less than a win tomorrow and the pressure will crank up even higher on Martin with fans switching attention towards Kev Thelwell who decided to appoint the Vegan Buddhist as Phil Clement’s successor.

YES- Action has to be taken

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No- never harm the team

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