Rangers missed out on ‘spectacular’ manager Patrick Stewart spoke to before Russell Martin hire
Russell Martin’s time at Rangers has been truly disastrous and the club hierarchy have been questioned over his appointment.
Davide Ancelotti was strongly considered before Martin was announced to much negativity, spoiling the excitement that had built after the takeover.
Andrew Cavenagh is still blindly backing Martin despite significant Rangers fan anger and poor results, and he will end up looking back on his decisions with a lot of regret.
Ancelotti is currently struggling at Botafogo, but there was another candidate Rangers spoke to, who is now flying elsewhere.
Francisco Farioli spoke to Rangers before Porto move
Kevin Thelwell and Patrick Stewart considered many options over the summer before somehow landing on Martin, and they will massively regret snubbing one of them.
Francisco Farioli endured a tough spell at Ajax last season, and was a free agent heading into the summer window.
As reported by the Glasgow Herald in May, Rangers spoke to Farioli over the vacant manager’s role, with Stewart leading the talks with several different candidates.
| Manager | Farioli | Martin |
| Games | 9 | 16 |
| Wins | 9 | 5 |
| Losses | 0 | 6 |
| Goals | 22 | 20 |
| Conceded | 2 | 23 |
| Points per game | 3 | 1.25 |
Farioli even spoke to Rangers in 2022 before Michael Beale was appointed, but again, Rangers made a mistake.
Rangers instead chose Martin, and Farioli went to Porto, who will face Rangers in the Europa League this season, and many will look at them with a lot of jealousy now.
- Read more: Ray Parlour sums up Russell Martin woes in one word as big-name Rangers appointment claim made
Farioli thriving at Porto
Farioli has now enjoyed one of the best-ever starts a new manager has had at any club, with his Porto side flying at the top of Liga NOS.
Porto have won all seven of their league games this season, scoring 19 goals and remarkably only conceding once.
They have also won both of their Europa League games, and 36-year-old Farioli has a 100 per cent win rate in all competitions.
This is in stark contrast to the dross Martin has served up, with his side defensively frail, barely capable of a win and struggling for goals.
Champions League winner Ricardo Carvalho recently described Farioli as a “spectacular” coach, while plenty of less complimentary words have been directed at Martin from the Rangers fanbase in the same timeframe.
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