Rangers' sporting director Kevin Thelwell has given Russell Martin his full vocal support, declaring that he is "certain" the under-fire manager will ride out his difficult start and win over his doubters.
The former Southampton boss, who was appointed in June, has already faced calls to leave after winning just three of his 11 matches in charge. He has not seen in a win in his first four Scottish Premiership fixtures and was thrashed 9-1 on aggregate by Club Brugge in a Champions League play-off.
But Thelwell feels Martin's work behind the scenes has been to "a very high standard" and will soon reap rewards on the pitch.
"I've been very lucky over the course of my career to work with some very good managers and some very good head coaches, and I have to say, he's one of the best," the sporting director said in a club interview on Wednesday.
"He's a very good coach, very good on the grass, very well organised, he's extremely high energy. He gives time to players, wants to develop players and he cares about the group, he cares about the results and the performances.
"I've found him very, very collaborative.
"Now, I appreciate I'm saying all of those things and we haven't quite translated yet what I'm seeing on a day-to-day basis, all of that hard work, into what we need to see on the pitch, but I'm certain that that will happen.
"I appreciate it's very easy for me to sit here and ask for patience. I won't do that because I know we work at an incredible football club that desires and needs to have a winning team very, very quickly.
"But there also needs to be a little bit of perspective here because we have changed so much. And hopefully, in due course the fans and everybody will see all of the good work that's been going on out on the pitch through the performances."
Thelwell acknowledged that results and performances had not gone to plan so far but he believed the "volume of change that was needed" at the club over the summer had created "a little bit of volatility."
"Of course we're disappointed with the start that we've made and frustrated," he said. "And I'd turn to one game in particular that I think is the most disappointing for us, which is Club Brugge away, a very difficult game for everybody, the fans included.
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"We all certainly understood after that game that we needed to put it right quickly and hopefully we'll do that over the course of the next games.
"There's been a lot of work done and I appreciate nobody's yet seen the value of that but hopefully in due course, we will and we can give everybody a team to be proud of.
"We're working very, very hard -- now that the window has shut -- to get absolutely everybody onto one page, to be very clear about what we need to do going forwards.
"Hopefully when we get back to the Hearts game and the games going forward, we'll see a bit more of what we saw in the Old Firm," which finished goalless on Sunday.