In terms of Martin, it seems like he plays a relatively attractive style, has had moderate success, comes across well in the media and the fans seem to like him. With our supposed resources we should be able to give him the most talented squad he has worked with. Just have to wait and see if he can handle the additional pressure of the club wanting an immediate return to the PL.
On this - looking at the teams who are/will be going up, they hired: - Burnley: a young manager who contrived to win nothing with Anderlecht despite their historical dominance of Belgium, and arrived with no experience of playing or coaching in the Championship. A name, but not an awful lot by way of evidence for success. Also had to ride the wave of huge squad turnover and financial issues in the background. - Sheffield United: Paul Heckingbottom, the failed Leeds and Hibernian head coach. Had a decent run with Barnsley in League 1 five years ago but that’s pretty much it for his CV. Also not a name. - Luton Town: another young coach, this time one who was eaten up and spat out by Watford (not an exclusive club anymore…) after winning promotion from League Two with Forest Green. And that’s it. Had been managing for about 15 months and was also not a name. - Coventry City: lower league journeyman manager Mark Robins, who did well in his first managerial gig at Rotherham between 2007-2009 but then didn’t do enough at Barnsley and got sacked by Huddersfield and Scunthorpe and spent a while out of the game. Got his career back on track at Coventry but it’s taken six years of squad building to just reach a play-off final - admittedly in different circumstances. Also not a name. I couldn’t really care less about whether the manager’s name massages people’s egos. I just want to get a coach who can… well, coach. And not make a giant sideshow of the club: a la Nathan Jones or Frank Lampard’s Derby.
Sky reporting that Russell Martin and Saints have agreed personal terms. Expected to trigger the release clause in his Swansea contract tomorrow.
Interested to know why you think this is a rushed appointment? The club will have been researching options and having conversations ever since Jones was sacked. And even in the unlikely event that they weren’t, it didn’t take long to realise Selles wasn’t the man for the job. I’ve still not seen one realistic name that the majority of fans would have been happy with, and I include Vieira and Martin in that.
Great so he'll be in charge next weekend and Selles can **** off with elyounisi Walcott and McCarthy etc..
Poor Russell, he doesn’t deserve to be associated with this rabble. I guess he’ll be in the stands though? (Sorry, Ruben)
I might revisit the worst ever Saints manager poll, for my money it is Ruben (even worse than Wigley and Pellegrino, absolutely dire)
It would really be a stroke of genius from their owners, not only is he Nathan ****ing Jones, but he’s also a known Cardiff fan.
I don’t have quite the dislike of him that I did for Jones, I mean he seems like a nice enough guy, but he is statistically the worst ‘permanent’ manager in Saints history and tbh he has fully earned that label.
