Russell Martin

[Lord Duckhunter]

7 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

They are a complete irrelevance for the home supporters. You know, the ones whose money actually goes towards our club.

Anyone who only goes to home games is a bit of a Nod imo. 

[Whitey Grandad]

5 hours ago, Chez said:

 

Most fans that go away also go to the home games.

Maybe not in terms of match day income, but the points won contribute to the prize money and they get the TV money from the away games.

The vast majority of fans that go to home games don’t go to away games.

Anyone who goes to an away game is supporting that home club financially.

[Whitey Grandad]

11 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Anyone who only goes to home games is a bit of a Nod imo. 

All 30,000 of them?

[beatlesaint]

20 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Anyone who only goes to home games is a bit of a Nod imo. 

Oh well, that’s it then, hang your heads in shame, Lord Cocksucker thinks only people who can afford to or are physically able to only go to home games are “Nods”

 

What a thoroughly unpleasant character you are.

[Crab Lungs]

1 hour ago, Paul Chuckle said:

 

Anything less than Russell Martin Starting Tella Adams and Sulemana next season then I won't be happy. 

If SaintRob needs it then I suggest the club take note as I for one trust his judgement!

 

He needs it.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

12 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

Given its costing us a report 800k to buy him out, it's not really a cheap appointment is it. If we get the added bonus of being able to attract the best Swansea players with championship experience then it may well be worth it. 

You reminded me that we only used to go for managers who were out of work. Even if there are doubts about the appointment, it is a big step that we're actually paying for managers now

Edited 28 May, 2023 by Ex Lion Tamer

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

Reckon we should be getting an official announcement within the next couple of days because the rebuild needs to start sooner rather than later. Otherwise I'll have doubts this will happen. If there's no announcement by the middle of the week, the question then is who else are they targeting? 

[Miltonaggro]

41 minutes ago, Crab Lungs said:

He needs it.

Not as much as a wank! 

[Chez]

53 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

The vast majority of fans that go to home games don’t go to away games.

Anyone who goes to an away game is supporting that home club financially.

so?

You said "They (away performances) are a complete irrelevance for the home supporters." 

but that's simply not true for several reasons. Many of those home supporters go to away games for starters. Away fans are home fans too.  Many fans stream all the games. It doesn't matter if the game is home or away, how we play and the result matters to Saints fans. Away performances, wins and points are very relevant to home fans. 

Just for clarify, I fully understood why the board sacked Puel. We were absolutely terrible to watch at home. Not as bad as we've been this season though.

 

[SaintsLoyal]

This is going to be so anti climax, i really do hope everyone can give him some support.

[FarehamSaintJames]

37 minutes ago, SaintsLoyal said:

This is going to be so anti climax, i really do hope everyone can give him some support.

This.

I’ll support whoever is manager up until they do something idiotic (see Nathan Jones or Ruben Selles). But it is an underwhelming appointment if this happens.

Not one that’ll win fans back inside quickly which I think now SR need to do.

[West end Saints]

29 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

This.

I’ll support whoever is manager up until they do something idiotic (see Nathan Jones or Ruben Selles). But it is an underwhelming appointment if this happens.

Not one that’ll win fans back inside quickly which I think now SR need to do.

Who would? 

If we win a few games at the start of the season fans will soon be supportive (although some will moan whatever!), as long as we don't get the crazy Jones style interviews. 

 

Looks decent appointment, we just need to stabalise a squad

[Dellman]

1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

This.

I’ll support whoever is manager up until they do something idiotic (see Nathan Jones or Ruben Selles). But it is an underwhelming appointment if this happens.

Not one that’ll win fans back inside quickly which I think now SR need to do.

  I want to back the manager, the team and everyone else to do with the Club and that's what i've been doing since I began at the end of the war years, aged 8. But I hoped that after the Nathan Jones fiasco the next manager would have some reputation to encourage fans and be a significant presence in the dressing room for the players. I did not expect him to be from a Club even lower than Luton. I would have thought once bitten the Directors would have been twice shy. Oh dear, I hope its not 'here we go again'

[Nolan]

8 hours ago, Dellman said:

  I want to back the manager, the team and everyone else to do with the Club and that's what i've been doing since I began at the end of the war years, aged 8. But I hoped that after the Nathan Jones fiasco the next manager would have some reputation to encourage fans and be a significant presence in the dressing room for the players. I did not expect him to be from a Club even lower than Luton. I would have thought once bitten the Directors would have been twice shy. Oh dear, I hope its not 'here we go again'

But recent history doesn't show the type of manager you want is not the type of manager that promotes teams from the championship.

Russel Martin arguably IS more like Farke, or Frank, or Cooper, or Munoz. In the last few years it's only really Bielsa who was an manager "with reputation"

The young managers. They're the managers who have brought promotion to the Prem recently.

 

 

[Nolan]

"appointment that is expected to be confirmed on Tuesday."

"He is expected to take Matt Gill and Dean Thornton with him as part of his backroom staff as a bare minimum."

 

https://planetswans.co.uk/2023/05/28/southampton-set-to-confirm-martin-on-tuesday/

[AlexLaw76]

Get on the f-ing bus

[CB Fry]

I'm looking forward to Matt Gill and Dean Thornton being either

a) blamed for everything being terrible

or

b) portrayed as actually all the success we've had is down to them

by November

[Miltonaggro]

11 hours ago, SaintsLoyal said:

This is going to be so anti climax, i really do hope everyone can give him some support.

Once it became clear that it was a done deal with Martin, there’s nothing that fans could do other than support him, though the Jones debacle has cost Sport Republic any goodwill in terms of their expertise or decision making abilities. The likes of Viera or a canny gravitas appointment like Kompany at Burnley last season would have made for a much easier ride in ‘selling’ a compelling reset in the Championship but a heady mix of arrogance and naivety looks to have prevented that. Martin, though quite dull, seems likeable and played at the top level, so at least SR isn’t paying compensation for a person in danger of detention under the Mental Health Act this time around. 

[Miltonaggro]

13 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

I'm looking forward to Matt Gill and Dean Thornton being either

a) blamed for everything being terrible

or

b) portrayed as actually all the success we've had is down to them

by November

#September

[Mr X]

Russell Martin the name inspires greatness! 

[StrangelyBrown]

I seriously hope there is someone with a lot of experience who will join his backroom team. At the moment we have a young manager, young squad (unless we buck the trend and bring in some experience), an inexperienced DoF and an interfering lunatic overseeing it all. What could possibly go wrong???

[Badger]

55 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said:

 The likes of Viera or a canny gravitas appointment like Kompany at Burnley last season would have made for a much easier ride in ‘selling’ … 

Don’t disagree with you, but I’ve yet to see a name that would satisfy the ‘canny gravitas appointment’ description mentioned, let alone linked with the job. 

Who did you have in mind ?

Vieira has a few failures in his managerial CV, so other than his playing record there isn’t a lot to make a case for him on.  

[InvictaSaint]

This para from Martin’s Coach’s Voice article is particularly interesting. He’s generally been given time but he’s never been given money. Now he will have the money. However, he also knows - presumably - that SR will want - at worst - a two-season max stint in the Championship. So time is far less of a given. How he manages those competing demands will be very interesting. 

[BotleySaint]

Hope we get on and appoint him tomorrow, if we are going to. No time for dawdling around getting ready for next season, we need to get on with it and set the tone for close season bulk changes.

[The very right reverend]

Russell Martin sounds like a crap hair care product found in £1 shops, like a rival to Alberto Balsam....

[CB Fry]

10 hours ago, Badger said:

Don’t disagree with you, but I’ve yet to see a name that would satisfy the ‘canny gravitas appointment’ description mentioned, let alone linked with the job. 

Who did you have in mind ?

Vieira has a few failures in his managerial CV, so other than his playing record there isn’t a lot to make a case for him on.  

Whereas the case for Russell Martin is absolutely stunning and unarguable.

12th in the Premier League is an absolute universe away from anything Russell Martin has ever done.

 

Edited 29 May, 2023 by CB Fry

[Badger]

10 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Whereas the case for Russell Martin is absolutely stunning and unarguable.

14th in the Premier League is an absolute universe away from anything Russell Martin has ever done.

 

I wasn’t making a case for RM, but questioning the availability of the alternative ‘canny gravitas appointment like Kompany’ referred to in Miltonaggro’s post. 
 

I don’t think he was saying Vieira was the only option in that bracket. 

[Dusic]

1 hour ago, CB Fry said:

Whereas the case for Russell Martin is absolutely stunning and unarguable.

12th in the Premier League is an absolute universe away from anything Russell Martin has ever done.

 

I get the principle of this of course but another way of looking at it is that Martin has experience of playing and currently managing in the league we will be in, Vieira doesn't.

Perhaps that experience was something that was valued highly?

I suspect the ability to coach a team to play a specific style was the key reason but the experience of the Championship certainly helps, especially as so many of our players (current at least) will lack this.

[Nolan]

no clue if its true or not but:

Martin taking four with him to Southampton | Planet Swans

"Matt Gill, Dean Thornton, Matt Willmott and Ben Parker are all expected to follow Martin out of Swansea when the move is confirmed"

[Saint Fan CaM]

9 hours ago, Dusic said:

I get the principle of this of course but another way of looking at it is that Martin has experience of playing and currently managing in the league we will be in, Vieira doesn't.

Perhaps that experience was something that was valued highly?

I suspect the ability to coach a team to play a specific style was the key reason but the experience of the Championship certainly helps, especially as so many of our players (current at least) will lack this.

I agree…experience in the Championship will be key. Even teams such as Wednesday coming up from L1 will not be a push-over, as we well know when they outplayed us in the cup. I hope they get the appointment done quickly today and let’s get on with the re-build.

[CB Fry]

Eight am comes and goes and still nothing

[Behind Enemy Lines]

22 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Eight am comes and goes and still nothing

1026 here and nothing. 

[Suhari]

Is it Skacel o'clock yet?

[Christophenburg]

11 hours ago, Dusic said:

I get the principle of this of course but another way of looking at it is that Martin has experience of playing and currently managing in the league we will be in, Vieira doesn't.

Exactly! The championship and the PL are leagues apart, and managers that do well in one league often don't in another. I think Martin is a sensible if not exciting appointment, but ultimately it's a practical and realistic one for the direction of travel of the club and the league we now find ourselves in. It's worth remembering (again) that Graham Potter's only season in the Championship was a 10th placed finish with (an arguably better post-relegation) Swansea, just like Martin achieved this season...

[CB Fry]

9 minutes ago, Christophenburg said:

It's worth remembering (again) that Graham Potter's only season in the Championship was a 10th placed finish with (an arguably better post-relegation) Swansea, just like Martin achieved this season...

Except Graham Potter had also taken a tiny Swedish club through to qualifying from the Group Stages of the Europa League, something Premier League Saints couldn't do. So slightly disengenous to make that comparison.

[Christophenburg]

4 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Except Graham Potter had also taken a tiny Swedish club through to qualifying from the Group Stages of the Europa League, something Premier League Saints couldn't do. So slightly disengenous to make that comparison.

There's nothing disingenuous about comparing the performance of two managers of the same club in the same division, whilst absolutely acknowledging that yes Potter's success at Ostersund was incredible - from the 4th tier of Swedish football all the way to the Allsvenskan, qualifying for the Europa League by winning the Swedish version of the FA Cup, and beating teams like Galatasaray and Arsenal on the way (I randomly follow Swedish football too).

But on a purely apples to apples comparison, a manager who we'd all probably celebrate coming to Saints did comparably similar (though marginally better IMO) as the manager we're all a little underwhelmed by with the same club in the same league

[OldNick]

On 27/05/2023 at 21:34, verlaine1979 said:

Semmens did not get to choose who his boss sold the club to.

He recommended the bid to the owners I think you will find. Didnt he himself say he had other offers.

[Yorkshire Saint]

He is likely agreeing terms with Leicester (or Leeds) now...

[Turkish]

what is taking so long???

[Give it to Ron]

6 minutes ago, Turkish said:

what is taking so long???

Photograph we don’t have anyone to take all released and out of contract

[The Cat]

Back to the old Cortese classic of waiting until 11pm after the Echo goes to print so the announcement doesn't make it into tomorrow's largely unread paper.

[Nordic Saint]

39 minutes ago, Yorkshire Saint said:

He is likely agreeing terms with Leicester (or Leeds) now...

We can but hope.

[Nordic Saint]

3 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

I agree…experience in the Championship will be key. Even teams such as Wednesday coming up from L1 will not be a push-over, as we well know when they outplayed us in the cup. I hope they get the appointment done quickly today and let’s get on with the re-build.

That seems to be all he has going for him. But, there are dozens of managers with experience of the Championship, most of whom have been more successful than Russell Martin. We're not that small a club. At least we could have gone for one of the better ones.

[Tauro]

When we hired Adkins, I had a great feel about the appointment. It just felt right. This one, if we press ahead, doesn't. More than happy to be proven wrong but this feels more like the Puel appointment to me. Will probably be steady, but steady isn't good enough for our current position. 

[CB Fry]

1 hour ago, Christophenburg said:

There's nothing disingenuous about comparing the performance of two managers of the same club in the same division, whilst absolutely acknowledging that yes Potter's success at Ostersund was incredible - from the 4th tier of Swedish football all the way to the Allsvenskan, qualifying for the Europa League by winning the Swedish version of the FA Cup, and beating teams like Galatasaray and Arsenal on the way (I randomly follow Swedish football too).

But on a purely apples to apples comparison, a manager who we'd all probably celebrate coming to Saints did comparably similar (though marginally better IMO) as the manager we're all a little underwhelmed by with the same club in the same league

We're not and never were appointing Potter post-Brighton and Chelsea so that's a completely irrelevent comparison, that's not apples with apples whatsoever.

[Saint Fan CaM]

9 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

That seems to be all he has going for him. But, there are dozens of managers with experience of the Championship, most of whom have been more successful than Russell Martin. We're not that small a club. At least we could have gone for one of the better ones.

I don’t know what you mean by ‘the better ones’? The ones with more well known names perhaps!? I mean it could be argued that the best ones are those that have achieved promotion to the EPL, but they’re hardly going to drop back the Championship are they?

I understand this guy is less well known, has less history to have made a difference with Swansea, but what I do understand is that he had limited resources there and nowhere near the infrastructure that Saints will provide him. Just like Poch, there are no guarantees with certain appointments, but a clear connection to the overall strategy of the club has the best probability of success. Having read up about what he wants to achieve tactically I get it…whether he has the players at his disposal to turn us into a real force competing at the top of the table is another matter. For me the biggest blocker to success at Saints is in the mentality of the players…whoever takes the reigns needs to be able to get these players believing they CAN win games. Simple as that really and he has as much chance as Pep in doing that with a clean slate.

[SwansFan]

Thornton is an interesting character. Engages with fans a bit on Twitter. Doesn't like it when the keeper is criticised. As soon as they keep a clean sheet (irrespective of whether the keeper actually makes any decent saves), he'll be tweeting those who have been critical in quite a smug manner as if it somehow one clean sheet makes up for the 3 times in the previous month he's chucked the ball into his own net.

[Badger]

9 minutes ago, SwansFan said:

Thornton is an interesting character. Engages with fans a bit on Twitter. Doesn't like it when the keeper is criticised. As soon as they keep a clean sheet (irrespective of whether the keeper actually makes any decent saves), he'll be tweeting those who have been critical in quite a smug manner as if it somehow one clean sheet makes up for the 3 times in the previous month he's chucked the ball into his own net.

From everything I’ve read about your GK situation this season I was hoping the GK coach might be left behind.

And hope the former MK keeper isn’t someone Martin looks to bring. 

[SwansFan]

On 27/05/2023 at 17:43, saint michael said:

He is going to come into a club where there is change on every front. It’s not a straight forward thing to do however good a coach he is. I think Strachan had the personality to pull people together and manage both up and down. He will need to the same. 
 

As fans our short term memories are bad. Not his fault but he will need to build a rapport that enables him the time he needs. Imagine he comes in and loses his first 3 home games. This was something I think Ralph did well and bought Ralph time giving him credit when things got bad. 
 

reading through above, everyone wants him to be successful, but I think our worries are that we all recognise that whoever comes in it’s not an easy gig, as we have been so far off good for far too long. I just hope we can stop trying to be groundbreakers on all fronts and get back to doing the simple football things well. 
 

 

 

Expect a lot of talk about 'process'. About how he came in at a time of change and he has had to instil something different in the players which takes time, etc. If you lose a lot of players and sign a lot of players, it'll play right into his hands.

For instance, he came in just before our first game of the 2021/22 season and in February he was still bleating on about the lack of pre-season making a huge difference.

He wasn't as unbacked as he has led people to believe. He spent £400k on the keeper he wanted, over £1m on Harry Darling (both from MK) and whilst most fans would agree we could have done with an extra couple of players in January, he has had more money than most teams at our level.

He certainly hasn't had to come in and play kids from the youth team. Yes our squad is young but it is fairly experienced too as a lot of our younger players have been in the team for a while. Cabango is 23 but has 6 Welsh caps and 130 odd first team appearances for us at Championship level. I think it's a bit disingenuous to use his age as an excuse at this point. Obviously 20 year old Nathan Wood in his first proper season, fair enough.

Joe Allen's record speaks for itself, Matt Grimes, Jay Fulton, Kyle Naughton and Ryan Manning have over 1,000 senior appearances between them, Olivier Ntcham played 80odd times for Celtic, including in Europe and went to last year's World Cup... so whilst it is a young side, he has had some decent players with plenty of experience.

Edited 30 May, 2023 by SwansFan

[SwansFan]

4 minutes ago, Badger said:

From everything I’ve read about your GK situation this season I was hoping the GK coach might be left behind.

And hope the former MK keeper isn’t someone Martin looks to bring. 

He pretty much went straight into the side when he was signed (it may have taken a few weeks). He was eventually dropped for our other keeper (Steven Benda) and Fisher only came back into the side due to a season ending injury to Benda in January. Martin was pretty desperate to get another keeper in that window and kept talking about this failure even after we signed a back up on a free which suggests to me he doesn't have a lot of faith in him.

In short, I'd be surprised if he signed him for Southampton, unless he was going as a back up.