Russell Martin reassures his mum but prospect of Rangers qualifying for Champions League gives the shudders

One look at the league table would suggest no, things have not been going well. Martin says he has soothed his mother's fears. But while he might be eating his greens and cleaning behind his ears, the fact remains that Rangers are already four points behind Celtic having drawn their opening two games against Motherwell and Dundee. Martin has already had to question whether some players are all ego and too little substance. He has also been booed by his own fans while making substitutions.

On the up side, here he is, preparing to face a two-legged shootout with Club Brugge at a packed Ibrox for the right to enter the Champions League. Rangers have negotiated two tricky ties against Panathinaikos and Viktoria Plzen and are one more admittedly slightly trickier tie away from the promised land. It could be worth up to £40m to Rangers.

Qualify first, worry later

Are the Ibrox club ready for the Champions League? That’s another question. Let’s get there first and worry about it later was the gist of Martin’s reply. It’s possible to remember Giovanni van Bronckhorst saying something vaguely similar three years ago on the eve of a play-off clash against PSV Eindhoven.

Rangers qualified, were quickly cast as patsies in a strong group made up by Liverpool, Napoli and Ajax and finished with the ignominious title of worst-ever Champions League team at this stage. Van Bronckhorst, despite having taken Rangers to the heights of the Europa League final the previous season, was gone by the end of the year. He’d been ill-served by qualifying for Europe’s blue riband club football tournament at a time when Rangers were in a post-Europa League final reset.

It's easy to imagine Martin’s mother’s anxiety for her son being appropriate were Rangers to reach the Champions League stage. Albeit it’s a less punitive format now - two more games, potentially less formidable opponents along with the big guns. Having failed to beat both Dundee and Motherwell, one shudders at what the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Paris St Germain might do to a Rangers side who are still in the early stages of their overhaul under Martin. It was the obvious question to ask the manager, given everything. What if? What if they actually do it?

“Someone asked me if we've got the squad depth and all that to sustain it, if we need to worry about it. I think let's try and get in there first and qualify,” he replied. “We're building a squad that has to compete in Europe, whether it's Europa League or the Champions League. So I think it would be incredibly exciting.

"It would help us a lot as a football club moving forward," he added. "Not just financially, but what it would do for the players and their belief. And to then pit yourself against some of the best teams in the world would be a brilliant opportunity for us. So we're here to try and attack it as much as we can.”

‘Don’t worry, mum’

He seems to be relishing the challenges so far, despite the initial difficulties. He volunteered the information about his mother, who, hopefully, is not logging into the major Rangers fans’ forums. Of course, such places that seem to exist in a state of perpetual hysteria are not necessarily areas to find rational assessment. Nevertheless, the booing which met the manager's decision to take off Lyall Cameron and then send on Kieran Dowell against Dundee two weekends ago was a signal that even rank-and-file Rangers fans are unconvinced by Martin’s methods.

“I have a lot of people message me who read message boards and stuff who are concerned about me, and they just don't have to be,” he smiled. “I keep telling my mum, ‘Don't worry about it! It's all good. I'm enjoying it’.”

On the eve of such a high-octane match, he has urged his players to try and forget the riches at stake and enjoy it. Too many performances to date under him have been hindered by evident tension. He has also told his staff to drink it in.

“I appreciate the honour of managing this club every day and the gratitude I feel for that,” he said. “So let's have that in the building. I said that to the staff as well. So many of them support the club but I think they've lost a bit of joy of being here and working here. Let's get back to that. Let's understand how big this is and how brilliant it could be and focus on what we can control and that is playing with so much energy tomorrow and feeding off it.”

Celtic the priority

The aggregate victories over Panathinaikos and Plzen were big wins. However, Martin needs bigger ones. Overcoming Brugge would qualify as this, as would beating Celtic at the end of this month. In fact, while succeeding in both assignments is the ideal, most fans, given the choice, would select beating Celtic as the priority.

Then there’s St Mirren, the game bookended by the Brugge legs. It has now been restored to the fixture calendar because Rangers could not risk handing their rivals the chance to establish a seven-point lead going into Old Firm week.

Of course, Celtic could still do that – they face Livingston the day before Rangers travel to face St Mirren, which is a tough test at the best of times. But the decision by the Rangers board to rescind their request to postpone the clash in Paisley is indicative of some early panic at Ibrox. It’s also to allow defender Nasser Djiga to serve out his suspension following a red card v Dundee and leave him free to face Celtic.

Neither of these reasons identify a club completely at ease with themselves but what a boon it will be to Rangers’ reputation as well as their coffers if they can qualify for the Champions League, in the first season since being bought over by new owners. As Martin suggested, they can worry about the sleepless nights that this might involve later.