The Rangers board now must bring in a manager who can be a unifying figure for the supporters and get the best out of a group of players who have massively underperformed this season.
The Ibrox club could have gone and got Derek McInnes after sacking Philippe Clement. Now such an appointment would be way more problematic.
Again, McInnes would make a lot of sense for a lot of reasons - his understanding of the club and of Scottish football and an ability to take charge of a dressing room and mould a successful unit.
But he is part of a Hearts set-up that is clearly going places and it is difficult to see McInnes leaving, having committed to an exciting new project at Tynecastle. He has also turned down his former club once before, in 2017.
Sean Dyche is another whose name has been mentioned. He worked with Kevin Thelwell at Everton, where he steadied a ship that was in serious trouble, making them much more difficult to beat, a quality he is renowned for.
He overachieved at Burnley, though expectations there are vastly different from those at Ibrox. He has also been linked with Nottingham Forest, which might prove more appealing.
There are a number of other names flying around. In hindsight, Barry Ferguson and his team would have been a significantly better appointment than Martin had they been put in permanent charge after last season's interim stint, but it seems unlikely the new owners will revert to them.
Kevin Muscat has rightly been part of the discussion over recent vacancies at Ibrox having enjoyed success in Australia, Japan and China, while Gary O'Neil has English Premier League experience and Danny Rohl is highly rated, though another young and relatively inexperienced coach may be considered too much of a gamble.
This is a massive appointment for Rangers and whoever comes in has a huge job on his hands to "turn the tanker".