For much of the past week, Davide Ancelotti, son of the great Carlo, was seen to be ahead in the race to be the new manager of Rangers.
The bookmakers shortened him to odds-on. Word from Spain was that Ancelotti was first choice. On Thursday night, a source closer to the scene in Glasgow supported that view.
On Friday, the vibe appeared to flip in Russell Martin’s favour. Caution is strongly advised — this thing is fluid and capable of change from night into day — but Martin looks to be a slight favourite right now.
Other names have flitted across the landscape. Brian Priske, the former Feyenoord manager, Francesco Farioli, previously of Ajax. All respected characters. Steven Gerrard was heavily touted from the get-go but according to a source close to the decision-making, Gerrard was never the frontrunner that people made him out to be.
Martin is the surprise. He interviewed brilliantly and, says a source, «gave the board an awful lot to think about».
Ancelotti versus Martin. You’d struggle to find two candidates with such different backstories. Ancelotti has worked as a coach under his father at Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton and Real Madrid. Martin (briefly a Rangers player in a torrid era) has been manager at MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton, who he took to the Premier League last season before losing his job in December.
Ancelotti has had a safe, stable and apparently glamorous upbringing. Martin has spoken powerfully about the domestic violence of his youth and how it passed from his grandfather to his father, how his dad physically abused his mum and how his father lost the family home through his addiction to gambling.
«I look back at stuff that I found normal as a kid and now realise it was not normal,» he told the Sunday Times in November 2023.
Martin would be a tougher sell to Rangers supporters. His coaching is driven by his admiration for the possession football of Barcelona, Manchester City and Spain.
He took Southampton into the Premier League via the play-offs (in the final they beat Leeds United, whose chairman Paraag Marathe is now also vice-chairman of Rangers in the new regime announced on Friday), but his name doesn’t appear to be setting hearts fluttering on the Broomloan Road.
Andrew Cavenagh (the new Rangers chairman and the senior figure in the takeover), Marathe (new Rangers vice-chair, chairman of Leeds and president of San Francisco 49ers Enterprises), Gretar Steinsson (a technical director at Leeds and now a significant influence at Ibrox), sporting director Kevin Thelwell and chief executive Patrick Stewart are the key people in the appointment.
The mystique and mystery of Ancelotti or the more experienced management and known track record of Martin? They cannot afford to get it wrong. An announcement is expected next week. Perhaps very early next week.
