Was Russ being lined up to replace Gerrard at Rangers? It seems not

It’s almost as if we hadn’t had enough managerial speculation during the summer that makes the press throw around more reports and speculation regards Swansea City managers.

After the links with Crystal Palace and Fulham in the summer for Steve Cooper we have seen in the past week speculation now linking Russell Martin with firstly Norwich City and now it appears Glasgow Rangers.

The Norwich one feels like lazy journalism at best but the Mirror is reporting that Rangers have already made contact with Swansea City over the potential availability of Martin after Steven Gerrard was instilled as the clear favourite to take over from Dean Smith at Aston Villa.

It may be an international break but the managerial merry go round is in full swing at the moment with a host of sackings over the past few weeks leading to moves, speculations and targets for the clubs who are looking for new people at the helm.

It is reported that the success of the appointment of Gerrard at Ibrox has led to them thinking about another young up and coming manager to continue the run that saw them win the league unbeaten last season and currently top of the Scottish Premier League in this.

Martin did spend six months on loan at Rangers before the appointment of Gerrard but never really made an impact during a difficult time for the club but the fact remains he is just 100 games into his managerial career and whilst this may not concern Rangers this may be – like Norwich – the wrong time for someone to make this step especially given his relative youth.   Continuing to build a reputation at Swansea could lead to other opportunities rather than just the first one being taken.

The Glasgow Evening Times though was adamant that there would be no move for Martin and his name was not on the shortlist despite Gerrard’s departure moving closer.  The publication did not go into the detail of who was on said shortlist but were clear in their views that Martin was not on it.

This still appears to be one of those where a link may be natural, the link may be lazy and, for someone right at the start of his managerial career, the link is way too early to see him make the move.  Not that it matters if he’s not on that shortlist anyway!