Forkbeard

One of the excuses his defenders made for us is that he clearly "had the dressing room". Now, that ignores the significant number of players he fell out with whilst Swans manager, but if you're the sneaky, suspicious type you begin to wonder just how it is that so many stories make the press about how popular within the club he is despite results and performances being absolutely shite. The conclusion is that the stories are originating with Martin himself. Either directly or via his buddies. Some managers make a habit of getting the local hacks onside by being a reliable source of stories, and Russy is quite good at it. Many, many times here we were told things via the local press that made him look good but clanged completely against reality. I'd be asking for the ultimate source of these stories if I was you. We had the same thing with Roberto Martinez in the past. Another pretty shite manager who journalists loved to big up because he was a good source of copy.

We don't want him thanks. Well, we do have a few weirdos would have him back in a heartbeat, but I guess you've got some of those too.

I get the impression that now he's in the Premier League with a nice contract extension Martin has reverted to his usual nonsense? It's a frequent ocurrence with him. He'll try to make his style work and results will tank. He'll then switch to something that actually makes sense and results will improve for a bit. As soon as he feels comfortable again out comes the "philosophy". We saw it happen a good half dozen times at Swansea. You'll probably notice him make a few changes that make sense in a game or two but it won't last.

This sounds awfully familiar too.

We had all that too. I think at one point we had the worst record in the Championship for points lost from winning positions and goals conceded in the last fifteen minutes. The point seems to be that you can look at Martin's entire career thus far, at three different clubs and with a wide range of quality of player available to him, and the same themes keep developing. The fan complaints are the same. The deficiencies in his teams are the same. Even the excuses made by those who defend him are the same. He's a completely "one note" coach and you would appear to be in the league position you are because you've still got some quality players for this level rather than because of Russell Martin's contributions. Basically, if those of you who dislike him think you do now, wait and see what happens if you have to suffer through another year of him.

We had an excellent young German goalkeeper already when he took over at Swansea yet Martin insisted that we spent £500k on Andy Fisher, who now can't get in the side because he's not very good. Martin has some weird ideas about goalkeepers.

No disrespect taken. As things stand he's demonstrated that any job outside League One is too big for him. He's developed a talent for convincing club owners/management otherwise, but displays on the pitch tell the truth. For Swansea he took a playoff final team to finishes of 13th and 10th. He's taken a Southampton team with a (mostly) PL team and budget to, at best, fourth in the Championship. The man just can't coach at this level.

What record does Martin have exactly other than making teams worse and wasting the ability available to him? Swansea suffered through his "process" for two years. It seems like most Saints fans cottoned onto his nonsense far quicker than a lot of ours did, but even your club has the gullible types who buy into his bullshit far more easily than most.

The thing is, we potentially had Joel Piroe and Morgan Whittaker as our forward line last season, yet for reasons known only to himself Martin treated Whittaker with almost total disrespect. He was packed off on loan, tore L1 up with Plymouth, we recalled him and RM couldn't have made it clearer that he was not interested in giving him a chance. He's got a real gift for falling out with some players, playing others out of position and then whining about how his squad isn't good enough.

Reading this thread as a Swans fan gave me an enormous sense of Deja Vu. It's like reading our own forums was during his time as a manager. All the same complaints, all the same failings game after game, all the same excuses and attempts to palm the blame off anywhere other than on himself. You've got a better squad than we did so that has masked his inadequacies quite a bit, but the foundations of how he wants his teams to play, what he calls his process, haven't changed at all. Doesn't seem like he's conned as many of yours as he did ours though. Even now we've got plenty of people who still mourn his departure and would sell their first born for the chance to get him back.