Michael Grant

1 week ago | thetimes.com | Michael Grant

Russell Martin used to enjoy being able to go for a stroll in Glasgow’s west end and find somewhere to sit and read. For years his visits to the city passed in peaceful anonymity, even though he was playing fairly regularly for Scotland at the time. With the stroke of a pen his privacy vanished. Signing a contract to become a Rangers player removed the cloak of invisibility. What he regarded as precious — that anonymity — was gone.

1 week ago | thetimes.com | Michael Grant

Scotland have a localised crisis and, painfully for him, one player made his name synonymous with it on a truly desperate night at Hampden. For months Steve Clarke has lamented the lack of international class goalkeepers at his disposal beyond a 42-year-old, Craig Gordon, who was unavailable to him here. When the second choice, Angus Gunn, was lost to injury a couple of minutes after kick-off, a night of utter chaos was off and running.

1 week ago | thetimes.com | Michael Grant

Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart has admitted the club’s board know many fans are against Russell Martin’s appointment but they are convinced the decision will be proved right. The thoroughness of the headhunting process reassured Stewart himself that the former MK Dons, Swansea City and Southampton manager will be a success as Rangers’ new head coach.

1 week ago | thetimes.com | Michael Grant

This one was a bit different. When the press release dropped at 8.08am it announced that Rangers had appointed a new head coach, not a manager as they usually say. At 11.15pm on the dot the unveiling was done in Ibrox’s modern and brilliant white media conference suite, not the sumptuous and historic Blue Room where the likes of Graeme Souness and Steven Gerrard were once introduced. That pair drew excited and expectant crowds outside. Another difference.

2 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Michael Grant

New Rangers sporting director Kevin Thelwell said the club’s search for a manager could now accelerate with him in charge and that an appointment could come within days. Russell Martin or Davide Ancelotti are understood to be the final two in contention to end a saga which began when Philippe Clement was sacked 98 days ago. Martin, the former Southampton boss, and Ancelotti, the untested son of the legendary manager Carlo Ancelotti, have both held talks with Rangers and made their sales pitch.