Lame Duck Russell Martin as Rangers prepare to face Celtic | OneFootball

It is safe to say this is the most surreal Old Firm encounter that Ibrox Noise can ever recall the club preparing for. Never before have Rangers gone into a derby with a complete lame-duck manager who is despised by the fans and cannot do his job. Russell Martin is completely protected by the ownership and by the management above him. And yet the decision has been made that he will be in the dugout on Sunday for the visit of Celtic. Supporters are fearing the absolute worst.

Now there are a few caveats in this which we will get to, but the fact is that off a 6-0 humiliation from Club Bruges, a manager who is absolutely clueless, and an utterly dire squad that looks like it came from League One borderline, Rangers fans do not have the highest hopes going into the weekend. The Rangers Advisory Fan Board has already said even beating Celtic cannot save Martin. That is the reality of how toxic this situation has become.

However, the caveats are curious. While Rangers’ result in Europe this week was catastrophic, so was Celtic’s. We said before how Rangers are kings of Europe when it comes to the Old Firm, but Celtic are kings of Scotland when it comes to the Old Firm. Nevertheless, we do wonder how this mix changes the game. Celtic lost arguably the worst result pro-rata that Scottish football has ever seen, to a side ranked hundreds of places below them. Rangers were destroyed by an admittedly rather good side, not world-class but a well-organised Champions League outfit. TalkSport pointed out the scale of the humiliation both clubs suffered in midweek, making this derby unique.

Celtic have not reinforced properly this summer. They do not have the improvement they would have wanted, although they are top of the league domestically. Rangers certainly sign players, but improvement would be a stretch to say the least. The team has deteriorated massively, having spent £25 million on rubbish and loans. The surreal part is that we have never known a Rangers manager less supported by the fans, less endorsed by the fans, than Russell Martin is today. Even bookmakers now shorten odds on his replacement regardless of Sunday’s outcome.

So it is a very curious Old Firm that we have coming up, a very unique one. Celtic are still likely to brutalise Rangers. But will that finally get Russell Martin the sack? No, it will not.