Paddy Stewart and Kev Thelwell were confronted by angry bears as they left their Austrian hotel this morning.
After losing to Sturm Graz in the Europa League the levels of hatred towards Russell Martin were hiked up even further as the club CEO and Sporting Director discovered up close and personal.
The former Southampton boss has lost six of his 16 matches in charge, going behind in 10 of those games despite a net spend of £20m on the squad inherited from Phil Clement.
Stewart and Thelwell are being dragged into the protests for their roles in appointing Martin, Sporting Director Thelwell seemed prepared to speak to the abusive fans in the foyer of their Austrian hotel.
Sheepishly Stewart asked a fan who he would bring in as manager and was told:
Why are you asking me who I would bring in, that’s no my job. That’s your job.
Why are you bringing it back on the fans. It’s rotten. Michael Beale would have beaten every one of these teams. Philippe Clement would have beaten them too. Michael Beale would have beaten Genk. Michael Beale would have beaten Dundee.
One fan seemed to be placated by some words from Thelwell but another was more direct as he slagged Martin off as being ‘fu**ing useless’ and offering ‘f**k all’, to be fair he did also say that he was totally scunnered which was probably lost on the former Everton Recruitment Chief.
There was a strange lack of security around Thelwell and Stewart, it is believed that Martin was meditating at the time after having special muesli for breakfast.
Just seen this and the lads are absolutely spot on giving them a hard time ? the pair of them and Martin need to leave !!! We are a mess pic.twitter.com/OVipyMSYrD
— aye-ready (@StevieMojo1872) October 3, 2025
Following last night’s defeat Martin again criticised the mentality of the players- since he took charge of the club 14 signings have been made, players that Martin had spoken with to ensure that they were up for the challenge.
Chants of Sack the Board or Getting Sacked in the Morning are water off a duck’s back for people inside football but the abuse from Ibrox fans is taking on a more direct, personal tone.
Ahead of the defeat from Graz Martin highlighted his disappointment at seeing a boy with his father shouting abuse and giving him the fingers at Livingston.
When he stepped off the team bus at Almondvale it was to the chant of ‘Martin, Martin, get to f**k’.
The international break starting on Monday seems like the perfect time to arrange a settlement with Martin and bring in a new management team, if that doesn’t happen the protests will only get stronger with Stewart and Thelwell increasingly being targeted.
After watching his soccer team beat Hibs last weekend Andy Cavenagh flew back to the USA convinced that everything is going well inside the majestic castle that is Ibrox.
CLICK HERE for Martin claiming that his players don’t have the right mentality
CLICK HERE for UEFA details on the defeat to Sturm Graz
https://t.co/XsqNc7MgaK pic.twitter.com/CSTGtdLrPc
— Adam Dunn (@AdamDunn1872) October 3, 2025
Blame the survival lie.
All their troubles emanate from the survival lie.
Same club so expect the same success.
Until acceptance is reached, nowt will ever change for these muppets.
Bingo and the SMSM are responsible for floating that piece of Financial Blue Sky wishing on a rainbow sized dollop of keech.
Throw in the big Yorkshire man Charles Green’s claim of victimisation based on , wait for it, sectarian bigotry and religious persecution and the Scottish rags willingly jumped on board. That is until they realised that they had jumped on the proverbial ‘Tiger’ that would devour them if they attempted to Stop and row back on that particular piece of fiction.
So it continued all through the journey up lower leagues as they sought to erase the stigmata of ‘Relegation’(sic). Irony certainly isn’t their strongest suit. Yet the suits at Hampdump sat on their hands and didn’t remonstrate or censure the Tribute Act every time they threw a strop and issued another of their hilarious Board Statements.
This lack of condemnation and punishment has just emboldened them. They exist in an alternate reality which unfortunately the other Clubs tolerate and so the cycle goes on.
They’re crap on the park, let’s sack the manager. Rinse n’ repeat, what is is 6 times now, not counting Murty?
This time they’ve bit off more than they can chew. The Yanks are a whole different ball game for der hun.
4000 miles away and they don’t care. The denizens of the Ibrox money pit are in for a rude awakening. They can’t intimidate the unknown investors that they willingly gave their Club up to.
For Sevco to truly BE Rangers, they would need to believe in transclubstantiation…….
Aye, as long as the wine was Buckie and the ‘host’ was prepared to take over that new shelf company and spend “a hunner mullion” on yet another manager and a new squad.
Just what the hell is wrong with those peepul? It’s okay, I know!
Well, actually fair play to Thelwell and Stewart for engaging with a paying punter.
What would Nicholson and McKay have done in that situation?
They would probably have had security keeping them well away from the fans for a start…?
What sort of half-assed hotel is that? The security should have taken over.
Scary to think this guy is walking about the streets.
A wee bit of hypocrisy here mate.
Not a happy place – There again Neither is our one !
Celtic got beat on Thursday night Joe. Three articles on the R2ngers?
Editor: Well spotted, if it causes you distress I’d recommend a trip to Celtic Thick News for good wholesome Celtic content, especially the brilliance of our world class board of directors.