Russell Martin tells his Rangers story: Frustration, what he should have done and how abuse affected family

Martin was appointed by Rangers in June last year and was sacked in early October after a woeful run of form. He was barracked by sections of the club’s support and revealed that his one of his children could not attend a match due to the level of abuse.

Rangers have since flourished under current head coach Danny Rohl and sit third in the Premiership, three points behind leaders Hearts with eight matches to go.

“I don’t regret anything,” said Martin, who was commenting for the first time on his ill-fated Rangers tenure. “I think I’ve learned a lot and I will be better for it. I love Glasgow as a city. I loved living there, the people face-to-face were fantastic. I think it was character building.

“Do you what? It was really difficult for the people around me. So family, friends, one of my kids came up and they couldn’t come to the game because of the level of abuse I was receiving at that point it was quite early on.

“When you look back at it, you learn from everything right? So there is stuff that you would do differently. There is stuff you would insist on doing the same or maybe even more stronger with that.

“There was so much change. I walked into the club at the time and there was new owners that had literally been in two weeks when I came in. There was a new director of football, new chief exec, new head of performance, new head coach, 14 new players.

“I tried to stress a lot that it would probably take some time, so that’s my fault because historically and traditionally, you don’t really have time.”

Martin added in an interview with Radio 5Live: “I don’t feel bitter about it at all. I would have loved the time to have built something. I felt that was what the club needed but the owners decided differently. They made a decision. I was frustrated. The biggest thing I am from that is frustration. There was so many small things we could have done a little bit better.

“I should have been a bit more rigid with formation and certain principles and I bent and flexed to fit the newness of the group. We had so many young players brought into the club and it’s not excuses, we should have done a better job than we did, and we should have won more games.”