excruciating

Those Rangers fans who are almost as old as the Campsie Fells, the hills sitting above the club training ground just north of Glasgow, will tell you that Martin was the worst manager they’ve ever known. And that’s saying something.

One of his predecessors, Pedro Caixinha, once lost to Progres Niederkorn, the fourth best team in Luxembourg at the time, and ended the night by rowing with Rangers fans while standing in a bush.

Martin’s end was chaotic. A draw at Falkirk saw fans once again screeching for his sacking, a pretty much constant and venomous refrain in recent times. He was smuggled out a back exit at the Falkirk Stadium with a police escort. It was unseemly. It couldn’t go on.

The draw with Falkirk followed on from other league draws against Motherwell, Dundee, St Mirren and Celtic. Hearts beat them at Ibrox. Brugge beat them 6-0 and 3-1 in Europe. Rangers had the devil’s own job in defeating Livingston. Every game was the football equivalent of fingernails down a blackboard. It was excruciating.

As were the Martin explanations in the aftermath. He ran the gamut. He spoke about his players being anxious and scared, he talked about them not doing the things they were doing in training and not listening to the messages they were being told. It was impossible to avoid the conclusion that Martin thought it was always the fault of others.

After the Falkirk draw, he mentioned Falkirk’s deflected goal and their artificial pitch. After the loss to Sturm Graz on Thursday night he banged on about a throw-in that went wrong and cost Rangers a goal. “Somebody didn’t do their job,” he said.

The excuses flowed like lava. The one person he singularly failed to put in the frame was himself. Ibrox turned against him in the most vicious way, He was booed on and booed off. When Rangers scored a late winner against Livingston the cry that went up from fans seconds later was about Martin. It wasn’t nice, put it that way.

When you win a game and they still want your head on a spike, there’s no coming back from that. He lasted 17 games. It doesn’t seem like a lot but in the world of the Old Firm it really is. Old Firm managers get judged early. Gordon Strachan once said that there were calls for his head after a friendly prior to his first season as Celtic manager.

Good Morning Britain viewers were left furious after a heated debate was broadcast on Thursday morning

Good Morning Britain viewers issued a complaint as an “excruciating” debate unfolded on the show on Thursday (May 29).

This morning’s broadcast saw presenters Ed Balls and Susanna Reid tackle the day’s top stories, both domestically and globally, on the popular ITV show.

At one point, they began debating the current doctors’ strike after health secretary Wes Streeting warned that resident doctors would “choke” the NHS by going back on strike.

In a BBC interview, the MP urged resident doctors to “work with the government” and warned strikes risked hampering the progress being made in the NHS.

Last week, it was announced that resident doctors, the new name for junior doctors, would be getting a 5.4% average pay rise this year – more than other doctors, nurses and teachers.

But they have said it’s not enough to make up for below-inflation pay awards since 2008.

GMB hosts Ed and Susanna invited Dr Ross Nieuwoudt from the resident doctors’ committee and Reem Ibrahim from the Institute of Economic Affairs onto the programme to delve into the contentious issue, reports Bristol Live.

“I absolutely believe in markets, but the NHS is not a market, it’s a socialised healthcare system. That is the fundamental point. If doctors want to be paid more, then let’s look at a social healthcare system,” Reem said.

“Let’s look at countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark that have public and private partnerships where there is competition.”

She added: “What I would like to see is the National Health Service as a whole, the spending that we’re using at the moment, being used more efficiently.”

Ross was quick to counter, asserting: “I think that’s a foolish thing to do. A canary in a coal mine is there to alert people of danger, and that’s what the strikes are doing.”

The debate soon escalated as Ed and Susanna joined the conversation, with tempers flaring on all sides.

Viewers tuning into the fiery exchange soon expressed their frustation on X (formerly Twitter), criticising the segment’s confrontational tone.

One viewer questioned: “Why are they shouting??” while another commented: “Why is Ed Balls getting angry here? So unprofessional.”

Another exasperated viewer remarked: “This is excruciating,” and one more asked: “Can you explain please why Ed Balls’s questioning and response to the young lady was more aggressive than to the BMA representative. Seems to forget he’s now supposed to be balanced as an interviewer and his political bias as a labour minister put on the back burner.”

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV1 and ITVX at 6am