Russell Martin has made every Rangers player 10 times worse and that’s virtually impossible

Greg Stewart sat in the Ibrox dressing room as part of the squad in the wake of the darkest moment of Gerrard's spell in charge

Greg Stewart sat in the Ibrox changing room in the wake of the darkest moment of Steven Gerrard’s spell as Rangers boss and watched a manager prepared to take full responsibility.

Five and a half years have passed since that 1-0 defeat at home to Hamilton in March 2020 but Stewart can remember the vitriol and hostility that was thrown at the Light Blues squad that night as if it was yesterday.

The scenes that followed Accies star David Moyo’s shock winner didn’t quite match the froth and the fury witnessed at Ibrox over the weekend as Russell Martin’s modern-day side lost to Hearts, but it wasn’t far off.

But what really sticks out for Stewart is the way Gerrard handled the fall-out after that disastrous home defeat.

It had come hot on the heels of a Tynecastle defeat to Hearts, after which Gerrard admitted he had some serious thinking to do about his future in the Gers hot seat as another Premiership bid collapsed.

But after some deep soul searching, he vowed to redouble his efforts to restore the club to title-winning heights - a position he stuck to even after that Hamilton howler.

In fact, even as the boos rang out at full-time, Gerrard refused to throw his players under the bus.

“Look, we're all in this together,” he insisted that night. “I've put that team and squad together. So if that means me taking the heat away from the players, yeah, no problem.”

Gerrard shouldered the blame and protected his players from the flak.

And it was that protective shield that allowed the group to regather when Covid struck before mounting a remarkable drive all the way to Premiership glory the following season once they’d escaped the pandemic lockdown.

For Stewart, that approach is all in stark contrast to the one taken by Martin on Saturday night.

The beleaguered Gers boss insisted his side’s latest slip up - one that leaves his team perched TENTH in the Premiership table - was nothing to do with his tactics and everything to do with the fear his players had allowed to grip their play.

“Gerrard would never do that,” insisted Stewart in an explosive interview with Record Sport. “When he spoke to the media, he’d always take the blame.

“If you got beaten or had a bad game, he’d keep what he had to say in-house.

“He’d say what he had to say to us in the changing room and then say, ‘I'm going to the press and I'll take the blame.’

“He did that even after a ridiculous display like the one at home to Hamilton just before Covid.

“Steven would always defend his players as much as he possibly could. That was the kind of man he was.

“As players, that was great to hear, especially when you consider everything he’d done in the game.

“He was always man enough to take responsibility - but that's what being a Rangers manager is all about I suppose.

“Hearing him say that was massive for us as a squad because as a player, if he goes out and smashes you in the media, how do you react?

“It might actually get the best of you — but it can just as easily go the opposite way.

"It all depends on your personality and character. But that's why you're the manager, it’s your job to assess these things work out what’s best.”

But Stewart simply can’t see how Martin can hope to win his stuttering squad round when he has just questioned their character so publicly.

He added: “For me, he knows it's the tactics - but he doesn’t want to hold his hands up and say they aren't working. And clearly they’re not working.

“He's made an impossible thing happen. All these players look 10 times worse than what they are. It's virtually impossible for somebody to actually do that.

“He's made every player worse. And there's good players in there, by the way. I'm telling you, there's a team there.

“But I just don’t see any way back for Martin as manager. No chance. No way in hell. I just can’t see any positivity.

“I can’t see what he's actually trying to do.

"It'd be different if I could actually see something happening.

“I'd be like, ‘OK, give him time’.

“But genuinely I’m lost.

“I'm seeing a team here that are making X amount of passes at the back.

“I've never seen a game of football where the centre-halves and the goalkeeper are having more touches than attacking players.

“Who's the best striker in the world? Erling Haaland. He’d struggle in this team because there's no service to the striker. Bojan Miovski has doing absolutely nothing in his two games so far because he’s getting zero chances.

“For me, if you can pass forward, you need to pass forward.

"But I'm watching this Rangers team go sideways. There’s no options. It looks like four players against 11 when they go forward.”

Martin claims his new recruits are finding it difficult to deal with the Ibrox anxiety levels.

But Stewart can’t understand why the manager signed characters not tough enough to deal with crowd expectation levels when he’s experienced them himself as player.

He said: “The first thing you’re told when signing for a team like Rangers is there’s going to be pressure on you to win games of football. First and foremost, it is win games of football.

“If you can win games of football playing nice football, then even better. But when you don't play well, you still need to find a way.

“For me, we're not doing any of that at all at the moment.

“We look like we're going to concede minimum two goals. It doesn't matter who we play against. We're going to need to score three, four, five goals to win a game.

“But so far, we’ve only scored one goal for open play all season!

“When I played for the club, I knew what the Rangers crowd is like if it's not going well, if you don't make a forward pass or cross it when the chance is on.

“But I also knew that when you do score that first goal, it becomes a totally different game and the fans play such a big part then.

“It's difficult playing against a low block. It can be a mental problem.

“You need to understand that's what happens when you play with Rangers. The majority of teams are going to sit in, keep a clean sheet and try to nick a goal.

“But it's not as if Russell Martin wasn’t aware of what he was coming into.

“He’s played in Scotland before. I just can't see any way out for him.”

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