Who Is Russell Martin? A Saints Fans' Guide To Our Alleged New Manager Monday, 22nd May 2023 11:00 According to the media Southampton have agreed a deal with Swansea City manager Russell Martin to replace temporary manager at St Mary's , but who is the man who will become the 4th man in charge in the Saints dug out in barely 7 months. When the name Russell Martin came into the frame for the Saints job, it is fair to say that a fair chunk of the Southampton fanbase said Russell Who ! Some might have been able to say he was the manager at Swansea City, but very little else, so here we give the rundown on the man who all media outlets seem to think is now the new Southampton manager in all but the signature on the contract. Russel Martin was born on 4th January 1986 shortly before Glenn Cockerill scored a screamer in a 6th round FA Cup tie to line Saints up with a semi final showdown with Liverpool.
Although he was on his home town club's books it was with Wycombe Wanders he started his professional career in 2004, he stayed there until 2008 when he joined Peterborough and then following a spell on loan at Norwich joined them permanently in 2010. He would play 308 games in all competitions for the Carrow Road club, including 125 in the Premier League where he was a virtual ever present for 4 seasons. After a spell on loan at Rangers he joined Walsall and then MK Dons in January 2019. Coming to the end of his playing career, he replaced ex Saint Paul Tisdale in November 2019 and although initially he was player manager he ended his playing career shortly after. At this stage he had a career total of 579 games as a player plus 29 caps for Scotland. At MK Dons in his first partial season MK Dons ended in 19th place in League One avoiding relegation.
In his first full season in 2020/21 he installed a possession based game to the team and in the March of that season his team recorded a 56 pass move to score a goal, a British record at the time, by the end of the season only Manchester City and Barcelona in Europe had a better possession rate than Martin's team, however it didn't improve things much in terms of League position and MK Dons finished 13th. But that didn't stop Swansea City who appointed him their new manager in August 2021, he signed a 3 year deal and also brought along his assistants Luke Williams, Matthew Gill, and Dean Thornton from MK Dons. Again it was a possession based game he would employ at Swansea, but also again it didn't really transfer to League position, his first season saw 16th in the Championship and in his second 10th.
It is pertinent to note here that Martin appears to have made noises to his employers about extending his contract as it only has a year left to run, but Swansea seem to have showed no immediate enthusiasm to do so. That is not good reading for those who are looking to establish his reputation down in South Wales. In his personal life he is a Vegan, initially to manage a health issue but he is also a part-owner of Erpingham House, the largest vegan restaurant in the UK, to add to that he is also a Buddhist. So this does not make good reading overall for Saints supporters, he clearly fits the blueprint of Sports Republic's managerial wants, but then again so did Nathan Jones who in fairness had a much better track record as a manager than Martin and that is saying something. But to counterbalance those that say that his track record is nowhere near good enough for a club the size of Southampton and what we are trying to achieve next season, it could be pointed out that when Brighton appointed Graham Potter he had also taken Brighton to 10th in the Championship in his one season in charge. Likewise if we look back at the managers who have been successful at Saints, the majority of them in the modern game have not had great CV's when they were appointed, Lawrie McMenemy had not managed above what was then the 3rd division, Chris Nicholl had only been assistant player manager at Grimsby in the then second division before returning to the Dell to manage Saints in 1985.
Alan Ball had a patchy managerial career at Pompey, Stoke & Exeter before arriving at the Dell in 1994, Gordon Strachan had just got Coventry relegated and was not a popular appointment. Mauricio Pochettino was not a big name manager and who had heard of Ralph Hasenhuttl in December 2018. Saints managers who have arrived with big CV's have in the main failed, Ronald Koeman perhaps being the only exception and Harry Redknapp being the biggest example. So although like most Saints supporters I have spoken to I am not exactly overawed by Russell Martin's pedigree as a manager, that does not necessarily mean he is not a good fit for the football club, Nathan Jones obviously wasn't but perhaps Martin will be. What i do think though is that Sports Republic are not reading the situation properly, I don't blame them for having a strategy and wanting to stick to it, but given that we have been relegated they should be looking at someone at the upper end of their blueprint, not those nearer the bottom. They need to connect with the Southampton supporters, perhaps they think they are doing the right thing, that unveiling Russel Martin at the home game against Liverpool will suddenly change the mood in the supporter base, that it will draw the sting of what is looking like it will be a toxic day as we say goodbye to the Premier League after an 11 year stay. But they will be wrong, if they were to appoint someone like Ronald Koeman as was the case in 2014 when we last had a crisis like this after the departure of Pochettino, when the sting was drawn by that appointment, then perhaps it might draw the sting. But they are appointing Russell Martin who most will see from his record is worse than Nathan Jones on paper ! Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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