“Russell Martin is a strong character, he never backs away from a challenge.”

That praise came from one of his former Norwich and Scotland teammates, Steven Naismith, who said Martin also “ticks the most boxes” as Rangers get set to announce Philippe Clement’s permanent successor.

The new American owners’ first big decision will see Martin handed his fourth head coach job at just 39.

A glance at his Southampton tenure last season probably isn’t encouraging for supporters – one win in 16 and sacked before Christmas, but that’s just a small part of his coaching career so far.

Here we take a look at the person, the coach and what the Rangers supporters can expect from the former Ibrox defender…

Who is Russell Martin?

Cleaning toilets before school, night shifts in a supermarket, becoming a student of Buddhism and being vegan are not things you would expect to write about a ‘normal’ football manager. However, to understand Russell Martin the coach you need to know Russell Martin the person.

He has made no secret of a complex relationship with his Scottish father. He said there was “too much violence” from his dad towards his mum Kerry and told The Times in 2023 his “whole world revolved around proving him wrong and making him proud.”

Practising Buddhism helped him throughout his career “in terms of visualisation, manifestation and goal setting” while he was a “strict vegan for five or six years” to help combat inflammation from ulcerative colitis, although he now goes “in and out.”

And it was clear Martin had coaching aspirations as a teenager, as he struggled to make it as a professional player.

“I had started my badges at college at 17 because I thought that would be my way into the game,” he told Sky Sports earlier this year.

“I didn’t think I was going to have a career. I wasn’t signed at a pro club, I was playing non-league and playing for my college, and I was going on a scholarship to America to study.

“I thought the way back into the pro game was play over there, get an education for four years and come back and try and coach.

“I still had a dream of becoming a professional but I just loved watching football, analysing it and I had a real idea of what I wanted to do with a team. So I thought that would be my way in then fortunately I got a break at Wycombe.”

After two years with Wanderers he moved to Peterborough United before enjoying the best time of his playing career at Norwich City.

He made 309 appearances for the Carrow Road club, achieved back-to-back promotions from League One with Paul Lambert in charge and was captain when they returned to the Premier League in 2015.

Martin’s first of 29 Scotland caps came as a late substitute in a 3-1 win over Wales in 2011. His final international appearance came in a 1-0 win against Slovenia in 2017.

He was loaned to Rangers in January 2018 during the Graeme Murty era, making his debut against Aberdeen that month and scoring his only goal for the club in a 2-0 victory over Hearts in February.

That was as memorable as it got for him as a Gers player.

Later that year, after being released by Norwich, he signed for Walsall in a player-coaching role before a return to MK Dons that really kick-started his coaching career.

Step into management

Martin was still playing when he was offered the chance to take charge at MK Dons by then-chairman Pete Winkleman.

“He said ‘people have told me you have a really clear idea of what you want to do’ and I lost my first four games and he was incredible,” Martin told Sky Sports in March.

“He had a real opinion on it and was often really critical but in a really brilliant and honest way to my face.

“As long as he saw some progression from individual players or the team he was really happy so I’m really grateful I had that as not many managers get that chance in their first job to have that time.”

In August 2021 he was named head coach of Swansea City, where they finished 15th before claiming 10th place the following year.

Next was a move to Southampton in 2023 where he took them into the Premier League at the first time of asking.

On 15 December 2024 with the club bottom of the league, Martin was sacked after winning just one game in 16.

What is his coaching style?

While Martin admits taking something from all the managers he played under he wanted to be his “own person” as “to really convince someone to do something, you have to really believe in it.”

“Most of my career I spent writing stuff down in notebooks, doing my badges on the bus and the lads hammering me when I’m getting the laptop out. I tried to take as much as I could from every single one.”

What came from that was a very possession-based style of play, think Ange Postecoglou at Celtic and Spurs, with a refusal to change his beliefs.

“We were criticised at times for playing out from the back [at MK Dons] but I had to show them all the good stuff they were doing and that the risk and reward was in our favour,” he said.

“The goalkeeper’s a big part of that and creating the spare man. It’s always about finding the spare man early on in the concept and then take territory and play forward, but always with purpose.”

Under Martin, they set a British record with a goal scored from a 56-pass move in March 2021.

It was the same at Swansea, lots of plaudits for the system but while they made strides he won less than 38 percent of his games at both clubs.

After initial success at Southampton, Martin said his “biggest challenge” was convincing the players they “could do it regularly in the Premier League.”

His philosophy ultimately cost him his job at Saints but it’s a style the Rangers fans can expect him to stick with as “the coach’s job is to find a problem and find a solution or work out what the next problem is going to be.”

Do his former team-mates rate his chances of Ibrox success?

Steven Naismith played over 50 times alongside Martin at Norwich and Scotland and believes the appointment would be the right choice.

“Developing players, the recruitment side of it and attacking football [are all issues] that have been labelled at the team for too long. I think they’re all strengths that Russell brings,” he told Sky Sports News.

“I think in every name that’s been mentioned and linked towards the job, I think he probably ticks the most boxes for what’s required at the club at the moment.

“The most common thing I would imagine everybody’s heard is the leadership aspect. That was very clear from the first time I played with him.

“I know he spoke about his people skills and things like that. He knows how to get the best out of players, staff and those behind the scenes at Norwich. He was a big part of what their success was, as a club.

“His knowledge and his intelligence of the game is really good. I think even way back then when we were in our mid-twenties, he had a hunger to learn about the game.

“I think a few of the fans at Rangers will remember him as a player and that’s probably not the best image of him. As a coach, he’s the opposite of what he was as a player. He was a defender.

“But as a coach, he’s a forward-thinking coach. He’s an attacking-minded coach. That, for me, is the biggest benefit and probably the biggest thing that gives you hope going into a club where you play against a low-block the majority of the time.

“Russell is a strong, strong character. I think he never hides. He never backs away from a challenge.”

Angus Gunn made his Norwich City goalkeeping debut with Martin still in the side before he left for Rangers.

“He’s a very intellectual guy. I went in there as a young goalkeeper and he helped me massively, even though he wasn’t in the team every week and playing regularly,” the Scotland stopper said.

“He was the captain of the club and he had good relationships with everyone in the dressing room.

“Obviously, watching what he’s done at Southampton, I thought he’d done incredibly well there and probably was unfortunate to lose his job there because it’s always difficult for teams coming up from the Championship to even compete with some of the Premier League teams.

“I think it would be a really good thing for Rangers, to be fair.”