Rangers boss given sack warning and branded ‘Russell Martin in disguise’ during furious rant

Derek McInnes could suffer a similar fate to Russell Martin at Rangers and be dismissed as manager before Halloween.

That is the concern of one fan after their 2-1 defeat against Jagiellonia Bialystok, which put their Europa League qualification in jeopardy.

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Rangers led during their third qualifying round first leg in Poland on Thursday night, but now find themselves with a mountain to climb in the reverse fixture next week to reach the play-off.

McInnes, who guided Hearts to second in the Scottish Premiership last season, remains without a win from two matches since joining at the beginning of June.

Speaking afterwards, he drew parallels between this Rangers side and that of the previous campaign by seemingly calling them out, saying: “We stopped doing what was working for us.

“We make two mistakes for the two goals. I’m not going to watch us all season lose the ball on the edge of their box and it ends up in a chance for the opposition.

“We need to be far more concentrated, far more focused, far more aggressive, far more talkative and organised to stop these types of things happening.

“We’ve seen a lot tonight of what I thought Rangers were last season. I thought they gave up too many chances, and gave teams too much encouragement.”

Fan fury

However, Rangers fan Mal called The Sports Bar on talkSPORT to warn McInnes that he could be heading down the same road as former boss Martin, who was sacked just four months after taking the job.

“McInnes, is he Russell Martin in disguise?” he asked. “How dare Russell Martin, at the start of last year, call out a few players in the first few games?

“I was the one to give the exclusive to talkSPORT, and to the BBC, calling him out before Halloween. Not an OBE, not a CBE, but an OBH – out before Halloween.

“Surely it’s too early for me to call out McInnes right now? Because I’m telling you, for him to call out the whole Rangers team in that interview, saying that Rangers played like the same team as last season… how dare he?

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“All the signings that we’ve had, he’s had the opportunity to work with the players and to obviously play some sort of attacking football, and some sort of coherence with the players.

“And then calls out the whole team to say, ‘Rangers look like the same team as last season’. Who does he think he is? Seriously, this is not going to last.

“If we get beaten on Sunday against Hibs (Hibernian), I’m telling you right now, he’s not going to last. I don’t want to be giving him an OBH, the same as Russell Martin.”

Rangers were held to a 1-1 draw by Dundee United in their first league match last Friday in a performance that left Mal far from impressed.

“It was basic football,” he said. “They can’t even read a pass to another player without another player intercepting it from the other team.

“We’re talking basic football skills here, and I am embarrassed to say it’s not going to go well this year.”

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Mal added: “It’s absolutely disgusting to start thinking about an OBH for the manager, it’s terrible…

“You’re the manager. You sort it out and develop that team. I mean, does he know who the starting XI is right now? No chance, absolutely no chance.”

Darren Ambrose then claimed that the Rangers squad will stop playing for McInnes if he continues to call them out publicly, and feared it won’t be long until this happens.

“That went against the manager last year, Russell Martin, to start calling out individual players,” Mal explained.

“Then obviously there was a lot behind the scenes with (Nicolas) Raskin (dropped by Martin). The supporters supported Raskin and what he was trying to do.

“Other managers have had their challenges with certain players, but you don’t call out the whole team and if Rangers don’t get European football after the money that they’ve spent, I’m sorry, it’s going to be a long season.”

What happened to Martin at Rangers?

Within weeks of his appointment as head coach in June 2025, Martin found himself on the wrong side of Rangers fans after they drew 1-1 with Motherwell in their league opener last season.

He then delivered a scathing post-match assessment, in which he said they were lucky to get a point and called for some of the players to ‘drop their ego’.

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Rangers failed to win their opening two league matches for the first time since 1989, and Martin later earned his first Scottish Premiership victory at the sixth time of asking.

Alongside a poor European campaign, where they were thrashed 9-1 on aggregate by Club Brugge in the Champions League qualifiers, the 1-1 draw at Falkirk on October 5 spelled the end of Martin’s tenure.

He needed police protection when leaving the stadium as angry Rangers fans waited by the team coach to protest against him.

Rangers announced his dismissal later in the day and eventually finished third in the Scottish Premiership.