If doomed Russell Martin is right about his players being scared, it leaves the Ibrox hierarchy with serious questions to answer over recruitment

Russell Martin explained away Rangers’ latest chaotic performance - the weekend humbling by Hearts and the final straw for everyone inside Ibrox other than him and the top brass - by revealing that the players are scared.

Shortly afterwards, his opposite number Derek McInnes insisted that it has to be about more than just the manager when results are going as badly as they are at the club he served as a midfielder in considerably better times.

And he’s right. It’s not just the players that have to be put under the microscope along with the doomed Martin. It’s the people who have been identifying and signing them. That brings the likes of sporting director Kevin Thelwell, exempt so far from any significant criticism since his arrival on the scene, bang into the mix.

Martin’s assessments of why Rangers look like they have hardly seen a football before and appear to have even less of an idea of what they are supposed to be doing with it have worn thin. He’s toast. It’s game over for him.

Put simply, no one survives afternoons like Saturday. They can’t. If proof were needed that he needs relieved of his duties for anything to move forward, it was the rump of the stadium singing in unison for him to ‘get to f***’. Expressions of what has to happen next don’t get any more explicit than that.

Yet, his assertion that his team are scared of what the atmosphere has become, that managing anxiety and dealing with psychological issues are now an issue for them, demands greater examination.

It demands a long, hard look at what went into recruiting them in the first place. What the process was. And the thinking.

When football persons rattle on now about what it takes to recruit new talent, talk about psychological profiles often comes into the equation. You know the drill. That it’s not just about their technique. It’s about way, way more than that. It’s about their personalities, their attitudes, their ability to cope with the unique pressures of certain clubs.

All that stuff most definitely applies to turning out for Rangers, particularly at a time when the need to arrest their arch-rivals Celtic’s domination of the domestic scene and start winning trophies again for a restless and long-suffering fanbase is key.

So, what’s happened then? Professional footballers, if they are going to be winners, need to be cold-eyed and cold-hearted. They need to, as we keep hearing from people such as Martin, block out ‘the noise’.

If these players are now ‘scared’ of stepping out to play on the pitch, as the manager suggests, they very definitely are at the wrong club. They are not going to find the comforts of easy money in mid-table mediocrity at Ibrox. And the directors who have cast them in the wrong movie need to be held to account.

Martin’s assertion that they look a different team in training on Thursdays and Fridays are better kept to himself. Like a lot of the stuff he says.

That just adds to the feeling that the vast majority of these characters don’t have the minerals to handle the challenge in front of them.

They’re not at Rangers to be winners of the Rondo League or European champions at chipping a ball into a wheelie bin from 20 yards. They are here to beat teams such as Motherwell, Dundee, St Mirren and Hearts. And they can’t. Because they’ve got the collywobbles about playing in front of shoutiness. It’s nonsense.

Unfortunately for Rangers, we are now getting into the scenario where even the head coach himself is losing faith in most of them, struggling to know what his best team might be.

Look at the weekend. Max Aarons and Joe Rothwell started the season as first picks. Benched. Oliver Antman cost £4million or so. Benched.

Nasser Djiga was a bomb scare at the back - as he has been for pretty much all of his Rangers career - and was finally taken out of his misery by being hooked at half-time for Derek Cornelius.

Mikey Moore was taken off at the break as well. Not to be harsh on the boy, but he doesn’t look ready for this.

We got our first look at Youssef Chermiti, a 67th minute substitute for Jayden Meghoma, as well. There wasn’t much on show to make you see why Thelwell and Co have committed £10m to a 21-year-old with hardly any games and next to no goals on his record.

His only moment of note was losing the ball on the halfway line through a lack of control.

Djeidi Gassama and Thelo Aasgaard don’t come into this, by the way. They were the only players to get pass marks in yet another atrocious collective display, but you have to wonder how long it’s going to take for them to be dragged down by what’s around them.

Thelwell did make a public appearance - or an interview on Rangers TV, if that counts as such - at the start of the month to throw his weight behind Martin and spell out his vision of the future.

If we are taking a closer look at the former Wolves and Everton director of football, it’s worth looking back at what he promised from the head coach when he was first brought in. And whether Rangers fans are getting what it said on the tin.

‘His teams play dominant football, they control the ball, dictate the tempo and impose themselves physically,’ he said. ‘They press aggressively and work relentlessly off the ball.’

Martin’s old teams might have. This one doesn’t. Watch what unfolded when two Lawrence Shankland goals either side of the break put Hearts on top of the table ahead of Celtic’s trip to Kilmarnock, and it was the visitors who matched that profile.

They harried Rangers, put them under pressure, closed down spaces, worked like dogs. As McInnes said, Shankland did a brilliant job in leading the line and everyone behind him followed.

This is being done with a host of new players and a new manager. Hearts turn out at a stadium in Tynecastle Park that has its own unique demands.

There is a lot of work still to do be done there, for the record. McInnes is still feeling his way, getting to know his squad. However, Saturday suggests they have managed to sign players who are up for what lies ahead and know what the plan is.

Rangers, meanwhile, are just a mess. And the likes of Thelwell and CEO Patrick Stewart need to do something about it.

Bayer Leverkusen bulleted Erik Ten Hag after three games. Their managing director of sport Simon Rolfes took full responsibility for the appointment of the former Manchester United manager, but said: ‘If you feel that a decision isn’t working, an even bigger mistake would be to let it continue. Sometimes it’s difficult, but it’s fairer to draw the line as early as possible.’

Making errors is no sin. Correcting them is vital. And when Thelwell and Stewart have done that, further appraisal of their toolkits for the next round of recruitment can begin.

There is a season to be salvaged here. And if the players are scared to make big decisions, the executive can’t be.