Russell Martin receives backing amid Nico Raskin and Rangers transfer row
Russell Martin has gained the backing of one former Scottish Premiership forward, for his stance in the ongoing row with Nico Raskin.
Martin has had a poor start to life at Rangers, drawing all four of the club’s opening Scottish Premiership games.
A positive performance in Rangers’ 0-0 draw at home to Celtic bought Martin some time, after some catastrophic early season form.
Amid all of the woes has been the ongoing saga involving midfielder Nicolas Raskin, who has fallen out with head coach Martin.
Russell Martin gets public backing
The ongoing feud with the Belgian has boiled over and Raskin is now reportedly looking at his options to leave Rangers.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), former Hibernian and Scotland under-21 international Tam McManus has publicly backed Martin’s management of the situation.
McManus said: “Manager should be backed on this. No player is bigger than the club.
“Raskin has clearly undermined the manager either in the dressing room or the training pitch for him to do this.”
In his pre match press conference Martin said: “He has a duty to make sure he earns the trust of all his other teammates, coaching staff and staff in the building,” in reference to why Raskin won’t feature against Hearts.
Russell Martin can build on Rangers’ performance against Celtic
Fans had been calling for Martin to be sacked by Rangers following the club’s humiliating 9-1 aggregate defeat to Club Brugge in Champions League qualifying.
Three 1-1 draws in their opening three matches of the Scottish Premiership season had further put Martin in the mire at Ibrox.
| Rangers 2025-26 Scottish Premiership results | |
| vs Motherwell | 1-1 |
| vs Dundee | 1-1 |
| vs St Mirren | 1-1 |
| vs Celtic | 0-0 |
However, Martin’s side played well against Celtic in the first Old Firm game of the season, and there were signs of progress for the 39-year-old to take from the performance.
Martin will know that a game against Hearts isn’t an easy fixture for his side to play straight out of the international break.
The Edinburgh club sit second behind Celtic on goal difference, and will pose one of the toughest threats in Martin’s early reign at the club.
On the back of a positive result, and having had time on the training pitch, there are reasons for Martin to be optimistic coming out of the international break.