It’s not the reaction of the Celtic fans that should worry Russell Martin.

Yesterday, some in the media went on the offensive. This is their default response when they’ve been made to look foolish.

For weeks now, they were pushing determinedly the idea that Gerrard would be appointed as the Ibrox boss, and that he’d bring a slew of talent with him. Then it was Ancelotti who was supposedly going to bring all the talent.

All the while, the club was briefing certain people in the press – but not everyone – that they were most impressed with Russell Martin. Tom English gave the game away in a podcast last weekend.

Having been made to look flat-footed and foolish, and then having to recalibrate all their coverage to sell the idea that Russell Martin is an elite-level manager – although they had never mentioned him in that context before – they decided that it might be appropriate and smart to attack the Celtic fans for curtain-twitching and sniggering at the decision.

Let’s take the “curtain-twitching” first. The club across the city is obsessed with ours. Obsessed with copying everything we do, with supplanting us in any way they can. And when I say any way, the history proves they’re willing to burn rules, regulations, and even the law of the land if that’s what it takes. So it would be very foolish for us not to take an active interest in what’s going on over there.

It’s our default response to just about anything that happens across the city. We’ve grown used to seeing them trip over their own feet. I said in the piece yesterday that Martin might not be a disaster, and our club has to remain alert. But I’m also saying that his win record is not impressive. He talks very well, I’m sure. But talk is cheap. Fans want to see results on the pitch, and that’s easier said than done.

It’s also been pointed out by Celtic fan media outlets that the club has already started preparing their fans for a rough summer in terms of the budget.

Martin himself has gone on record saying he only expects one or two players in before the Champions League qualifiers, because he’s been told he has to see what he can get out of the current squad before he starts to dismantle it. This is nothing unexpected. This blog predicted exactly that.

But the media take on this is wholeheartedly dishonest.

And what else is new? I talked about them gaslighting the Ibrox fans yesterday morning – and that is self-evident. But I really don’t know who they’re trying to convince with some of these articles about how we should feel or react, or more to the point, how we shouldn’t react to the Russell Martin appointment.

We’re told we risk looking silly because he might turn out to be an Ange Postecoglou – an idea so ridiculous I’ve already taken several shots at it since it started doing the rounds.

There’s also a narrative doing the rounds that he might be another Brendan Rodgers, because Rodgers was at Swansea and his win ratio in the lower leagues wasn’t all that impressive. It was impressive enough, though, to get him the Liverpool job – one of the biggest in the country – and his work there was impressive enough that when it came time for us to hire a head coach, he was far and away the outstanding candidate.

Rodgers has been regarded as an elite-level coach for well over a decade. So again, this comparison doesn’t stand up to the slightest scrutiny.

I think these attempts to compare Martin to Rodgers and Ange – and whoever else’s name they can come up with – are in fact a form of gaslighting, as I mentioned earlier. It’s another attempt to warp the Ibrox fans’ perception of reality.

And the fact that some of them are going along with it is hardly surprising. They tend to go along with most of this stuff. That’s why I’m convinced those articles that mention the Celtic fans aren’t really intended for us at all.

Because if you actually look at some of the social media commentary on Russell Martin, it’s quite clear that Celtic fans are laughing more at the club, its supporters, and the media than they are at Martin himself.

Martin does provide his own level of entertainment – there’s no question about that – but most of us are being very wary of going over the top. We can see there’s an articulate, smart guy there, although, as I’ve said, that doesn’t necessarily make him a good football manager.

But as I wrote in the “killing kings” piece, you never underestimate the new man on the throne. Some of these people do surprise you.

Still, the real target audience for all those pieces yesterday – the ones allegedly aimed at us – were actually aimed at the Ibrox fans as a form of feel-good propaganda.

Because if you actually take the time to look, the most critical, the most vocal, the most scornful and contemptuous commentary on Russell Martin isn’t coming from us at all. It’s coming from the people he most needs on his side.

It’s coming from the Ibrox support themselves.

That’s dangerous to him. That’s why efforts are being made to find some silver lining in the appointment, to spin it as something other than what it is.

Because if he starts off with a significant body of his own support already against him and waiting for him to fail, any negative result is going to send much of that fanbase off the deep end almost immediately.

And that’s one hell of a lot of pressure to be carrying into your first campaign. That’s a hell of a burden to have on your shoulders.

Martin has famously talked about how he didn’t like the pressure at Ibrox when he was there as a player. That pressure is going to be fifty times greater now he’s in the dugout. He’s the man responsible for holding the club together and their fanbase has already shown it has no tolerance for anything that takes too long to show results.

Time is the one thing he’s not going to get.

Ange managed to win most of us over before a ball was even kicked. It helped that the home performances were outstanding, so even when the away form looked like it had fallen off a cliff, there was always an inkling that things were moving in the right direction. That’s why Ange got through that tricky initial spell.

That’s why the fans kept faith with him, even though we didn’t start particularly well – either in Europe or domestically.

Because the home games were stellar, there was a clear direction of travel, and it was the right one. Fans had come on board. We liked Ange. We liked the cut of his jib and the clear progress toward a whole new way of playing.

If Martin has a similar start to the one Ange had, he’s finished before the season’s even properly underway. None of that goodwill exists for him. And those who understand that know exactly why it’s worrying.

That’s why they’re pushing this line that it’s Celtic fans who need to be careful, Celtic fans who should be wary.

They want to build this guy up as some unknown quantity, as if we don’t have his record right there to look at. As I said the other day, one of the things that sold me on Ange was when I looked beyond the surface of his record. He’d done incredible things. He’d won trophies everywhere he’d been. When you put that in context, you could see the man’s quality.

Martin has never won an honour as a manager. That’s where the comparison completely collapses.

Ange arrived at Celtic an established boss with a high reputation within the game – maybe not yet within the commentary class, but certainly within the wider sport. And it was because we recognised that, that we gave him a chance, gave him the benefit of the doubt. So when the season started and the away form was as horrible as we all remember, nobody panicked. Nobody overreacted. Nobody turned on him.

We told ourselves: once he gets his players in, once they bed into the style, then we’ll really see a show. And we did – not just that season, but the one after it too.

Martin won’t get that time.

Start like Ange and his polling numbers will drop into the single digits. He will always be one disastrous result away from real pressure and calls for his head. He will have to do something substantial, and early, to change that perception. Now, maybe he will do it. But right now, the risk to him is very, very high.

And that risk doesn’t come from Celtic fans sneering at him. It comes from those in his own house. That’s where his problems lie already, and in trying to focus on our response to it the media is trying to make people forget that.