Russell Martin’s Rangers complete preseason with a mixed bag of results | OneFootball

Potential bounce matches notwithstanding, Rangers’ pre-season is now complete and all matches from here on in will be competitive fixtures, starting with Panathinaikos next week. Rangers’ pre-season is done.

Rangers’ pre-season programme overall has produced mixed results, which, as per usual, have fans divided in themselves between those who are defending the results/performances, explaining with the “give them a chance” and “it was only friendlies” stance, and those who aren’t overly thrilled with the results and feel like the progression that was wanted hasn’t quite happened.

As Ibrox Noise have said many times in the past, the only time that Rangers have had a decent pre-season, and it’s then reflected in the season, was for 55. Curiously enough, every other pre-season since 2012 has been poor, or at best, mixed.

We know people will always be filled with rage when they are presented with facts that don’t quite match their interpretation of the world, but the fact is that Rangers have won 3, drawn 3, and lost 1 of the pre-season programme, including 1 competitive match. Rangers’ pre-season is complete.

It is also true that the one that truly matters is the competitive result. However, as we have explained many times before, building that winning mentality and building that confidence is also key for a club like Rangers, and if the team isn’t doing so consistently even during pre-season, that could spill into competitive results. Of course, we hope that doesn’t happen, but at the end of the day, it is a results-based business, and we will find out the true mettle of this gang when the proper competitive stuff starts in the coming days stroke weeks.

Our assessment overall of the Russell Martin era probably doesn’t even matter to an extent. Every time we offer any kind of analysis, unless it is extremely neutral – which we find pointless – it’s frequently greeted with abuse from those who disagree, usually the biggest, most ardent Martin backers, and that is fair enough.

We’re big boys and girls on this site, we can take it, but at the same time, it isn’t the best look when analysis is offered and the greeting from response is nothing but antagonistic and angry. Unfortunately, it also goes both ways. Anyone offering a ‘pro-Russell Martin’ take on things will be greeted with disdain by those who disagree, and usually abuse. It’s been a common theme.

Nevertheless, we’re trying to get back to the point here of Russell Martin and the pre-season programme – the mixed bag of results. Rangers’ pre-season is complete and we would agree that friendlies don’t strictly matter, but at the same time, we also believe that they do, in a sense, a lot more than some fans would attest.

In general, if Rangers had won every single pre-season match, every fan would be happy and they would all be agreed that the pre-season has been good and is probably useful. There would be caution, of course, but tonnes of positive memes. When results aren’t so good it’s “just a friendly ffs” and division.

All we can do now is await the regular competitive stuff to see what this regime is really made of.