I think Martin has been really lucky getting the Rangers job. It ia high profile yet a role where the objectives of winning silverware is limited to a handful of clubs. At best, he will be operating at the equivalent of Engkish Championship level. In my opinion, i cannot see Russell Martin having a repeat of last season. The bar is not set so high in Scottish football . He will be unlikely to challenge Celtic but i cannot foresee a disaster even if the aopointment won't take Rangers up another level. I think he will make a move for a few Saints players like Archer and Manning.
Sadly for Martin, all of those games where we were either battered or turned a win into a loss because of his tactics have somewhat diluted the play off final success. An amazing day, no denying that, but what followed was so bad he's certainly tarnished the memory for me.
Don't think you should let the bad tarnish the good when you're a Saints fan. We don't have enough moments like the play off final to not allow it to be a purely good memory. What came after has obviously been diabolically bad. But they are separate things for me. The play off final win was probably my best moment ever as a Saints fan. Last season was horrific, but doesn't mean that day at Wembley wasn't still incredible. No point in rewriting history and not remembering it as fondly as you did in the moment imo.
Agreed. A play off final win is likely as good as it gets for a club like us and it's certainly not tarnished for me just because of a moronic manager. As I said a couple of weeks back as bad as this season's been I wouldn't swap it for what happened to Sheffield United.
Don't get me wrong, the day itself was very special and nothing will change that. Maybe I didn't word it right. When I look back at Martin's time in charge you have to compare both seasons, and his spell was greatly tarnished by what happened in the PL in my view. People can say he gave us a magical day at Wembley but we had some god awful days in that season even with promotion being achieved. Besides, a lot of the good stuff that season was because we had one of the best squads in the league, not the best manager.
I wish him well, he's a decent bloke who has morals and does good charitable work and he snubbed the Tory PM! He gave me enough good moments while he was here but made mistakes in a tough league with a weak squad that should've done better. I never wished ill of Pellegrino when he left and he was much worse imo.
I thought snubbing Sunak was a bit of a twat move actually. You may not agree with his policies or any of that, but he’s a Saints fan. Football is about taking us away from all that stuff, but RM made it about himself, of course.
From memory he said he hadn’t spoken to him when he was at a game, and that if Sunak requested to meet him that he didn’t want to. Something along those lines.
I don't wish him ill either, it's only football ultimately. Not sure I agree re Pellegrino being worse though as he didn't show the disrespect Martin did to the club and fans. Pellegrino tried his best for the club and had its interests at heart just wasn't anywhere near good enough. Russell tried his best for himself and his own interests, placing that and feeding his ego over what was better for the club. That's unforgivable in my book.
Still think the worst thing is that quote I posted here yesterday. "We're not here to try and grind out results" So basically trying to play his style was more important to him than results. Never mind about that 7 figure salary mush and doing what's best for the football club eh. Honestly football is so mental these days. Just five years ago I reckon that quote would have been universally mocked but now it's seen as 'admirable' or 'brave'.
I'd have understood it more early in the season but in December after 11 defeats out of 14? Genuinely an astonishing thing for a manager to come out and say publicly. Should have been sacked on the spot. Well actually should have been sacked a lot earlier than that but you know what I mean.
The debate around RM is fascinating; I agree with all sides I love him for what he did getting us promoted, and that day at Wembley, and how he turned a demoralised club around. I also hate him for how he conducted himself this season, some of his decisions, quotes etc were bordering on insanity. I lean more towards the thank you, wish him well camp personally, but I do have that feeling of "he's a twat, **** him" as well - nothing like sitting on the fence
