You gotta give to the Rangers. Even when results are not going their way, they manage to keep things entertaining. At least for the rest of the league. They stumbled in their opening game of the Premiership season, drawing 1-1 against Motherwell. Of course, Celtic would have been delighted with their rivals dropping points on day one. But that was just the start of it.
Has any manager ever come out and given an interview like the one from Russell Martin after the opening game of the season? It is certainly hard to think of one. He is already asking questions about the team's mentality and ego.
Has the new Rangers manager given up on his team already? Or is he trying to send a message to their board that he needs better players? Whichever maybe the case, it certainly is not going to help team morale, that is for sure.
Former Celtic striker, Chris Sutton, seemed almost taken aback by what he was hearing from Martin. He said:
"This is remarkable…I’ve never seen an interview like it after one game… but most of it is true…"
Celtic hero Chris Sutton reacts to Russell Martin's controversial comments
It remains to be seen how the Rangers players respond to the public criticism on day one of the Premiership season. If the past is anything to go by, Martin should not be too optimistic. He should just ask the likes of Philippe Clement, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Mick Beale how things often go at Ibrox.
As for Celtic, they cannot waste too much time thinking about what is going on at Ibrox. They have problems of their own at the moment, with the club not showing enough ambition in the transfer market so far this summer.
As a result, they enter the campaign with a weaker team than the one with which they ended the last one. And they were actually struggling for form throughout the second half of last season. So, there is clearly room and a need for improvement through signings. But that won't happen before their Flag Day contest against St Mirren, that is for sure.