By Gavin Berry
Copyright glasgowlive
Ally McCoist believes Russell Martin could make a bold statement by giving Nico Raskin the captain’s armband and reckons it might help win back the Rangers faithful.
Martin brought the Belgian midfielder back into his starting eleven after dropping him in recent weeks, much to supporters’ anger, and Raskin delivered a man of the match performance in the 2-0 Premier Sports Cup quarter-final victory over Hibs to secure a Hampden semi-final clash with Celtic in November, reports the Daily Record.
Supporters demonstrated before kick-off against Martin and CEO Patrick Stewart, with protests continuing throughout the match, and Ibrox legend McCoist insists he must be a guaranteed starter, whilst acknowledging that naming the former Standard Liège player as skipper could prove a shrewd decision.
Raskin was given the armband by previous manager Philippe Clement for a 3-0 Old Firm derby triumph last year when James Tavernier was sidelined, and this point was raised with McCoist on the talkSPORT radio breakfast programme.
Rangers supporter Tom, who attended the Hibs match, phoned the show to say: “Raskin was back and made a massive difference. The guy won us the game so should Russell Martin make him the captain to give us a leader on the park because if he builds the team around Raskin he might get the fans back onside.”
“He’s got to do whatever he can to get us back onside. And I think Raskin could be the man to lead us going forward for the rest of the season. And I think one guy who worked beside him, Thelo Aasgaard, is an outstanding prospect.”
McCoist concurred, stating: “I watched the game coming up the road from Liverpool v Everton. We were a lot better. We got a bit of luck with their disallowed goal, but we didn’t get any luck the week before when three big decisions went against us.
“But in answer to your question, I can’t believe Raskin didn’t play in the last couple of big games.
“Clearly something happened that we haven’t been privy to. But you can’t do anything to affect the team because the team is everything so in my view Raskin must play because the team is above any personal feud.
“If there’s been a breach of discipline I get that and understand that and there will be occasions you have to clamp down on that. But I don’t think you can do that to the detriment of the team longer term. One of the things he could do that certainly would get a lot of, if not the majority, of fans back onside with that decision would be to make Raskin skipper longer term.
“Looking at the middle of the park, Raskin in there with Diomande in there or Aasgaard No. 10 is not a bad midfield at all. And I think Russell Martin has to keep winning games but he has to do some other things as well to attempt to get the fans back onside. Does it create a problem itself changing captain? I’m not so sure. It would be a heck of a statement.”