Russell Martin

[Mr.Bingles]

Russell Martin represents a style of play that Top seems to be obsessed with. The trouble is we do not have the players, resources or talent to play that kind of football. We won the league in 2016 with a style of play that fitted the team. Football tactics follow trends and this possession based football is beginning to look like the skinny jeans of tactics. 

Until Top changes his mind about the way he wants the team to play nothing will change. Until he steps back and loosens his grip on the playing style we will be stuck in this endless shit show. Rudkin is just an incompetent yes man. he knows where his bread is buttered. 

I also think that RM is no better than RVN. We'd just be swapping turds. 

Change really does need to come from the "Top" but whilst he fetishises about owning a Pep style club nothing will change. He needs to adapt the same way football is adapting. He needs to pivot and stay ahead of the curve. A young director of football would advise him on this. Top is clearly a rich man son completely out of his depth. 

Change is desperately needed but wont happen. 

[lgfualol]

Rudkin and co should be on their way out, not appointing us managers for the next (very critical) season..

[Mon.is.a.god]

I’ve also been told Top has been influenced by a key figure at Man City in recent times. The same person who convinced him to interview and take on Enzo. Apparently Martin is highly regarded by the city group and this stinks of another recommendation from said person. This all initially comes from Pep who worships anyone who follows his same philosophy.

[ClaphamFox]

17 minutes ago, Mr.Bingles said:

Russell Martin represents a style of play that Top seems to be obsessed with. The trouble is we do not have the players, resources or talent to play that kind of football. We won the league in 2016 with a style of play that fitted the team. Football tactics follow trends and this possession based football is beginning to look like the skinny jeans of tactics. 

Until Top changes his mind about the way he wants the team to play nothing will change. Until he steps back and loosens his grip on the playing style we will be stuck in this endless shit show. Rudkin is just an incompetent yes man. he knows where his bread is buttered. 

I also think that RM is no better than RVN. We'd just be swapping turds. 

Change really does need to come from the "Top" but whilst he fetishises about owning a Pep style club nothing will change. He needs to adapt the same way football is adapting. He needs to pivot and stay ahead of the curve. A young director of football would advise him on this. Top is clearly a rich man son completely out of his depth. 

Change is desperately needed but wont happen. 

Suddenly our dodgy finances make sense 🤔

Edited 26 May 2025 by ClaphamFox

[Ricey]

19 minutes ago, Mon.is.a.god said:

I’ve also been told Top has been influenced by a key figure at Man City in recent times. The same person who convinced him to interview and take on Enzo. Apparently Martin is highly regarded by the city group and this stinks of another recommendation from said person. This all initially comes from Pep who worships anyone who follows his same philosophy.

Sounds about right. At one point we seemed to be keen on replicating the Red Bull model, now it’s City Group. Copying the bigger boys homework always works out well.

[DezFox]

For everyone who persist with questioning who would want to come here and just saying given them a chance they got promoted once. You are part of the problem.  

 

For context there are roughly 11,000 professional football teams/managers globally, the Leicester and when everything is considered,  like infrastructure, training ground, budget, squad, ambition, fans, recent history. Surely the Leicester  job must rank in the top 10–15%. Take off your emotional hat. 

 

Despite current struggles, it is brilliant opportunity for an up-and-coming manager. Yet we continue to employ the merry go round of managers like Cooper, Dyche, Martin, or Van Nistelrooy. You’re telling me that there are only a couple of managers that would want it. I can see 60 odd (employed) in the football league alone that would see it as a step up. 

We must think bigger and be more inventive. 

 

xg, win ratio, recent record and honours are all obvious stats that you look at when getting a manger. However, we really should seriously considering the situation they were in, that’s nure.

For me, when you consider the Southampton squad last year and what Martin achieved with it, you could argue that he in fact under achieved. He was backed, and then again the following year and managed to build the only team worst than ours. 😂

 

So for all those people persisting with the argument that no one would come here, out of the 11,000 employed managers in the world I reckon there is only about 200 that wouldn’t come, even less if you see what we pay. You’re telling me that Cooper, Dyche, Martin, or Van Nistelrooy are the best in that. Bollocks are they, I find it so depressing that the same names pop up every time. Please just put some thought into it. 

Edited 26 May 2025 by DezFox

[Ricey]

Are there any videos of the chants yesterday?

[jv1]

34 minutes ago, Mr.Bingles said:

Russell Martin represents a style of play that Top seems to be obsessed with. The trouble is we do not have the players, resources or talent to play that kind of football. We won the league in 2016 with a style of play that fitted the team. Football tactics follow trends and this possession based football is beginning to look like the skinny jeans of tactics. 

Until Top changes his mind about the way he wants the team to play nothing will change. Until he steps back and loosens his grip on the playing style we will be stuck in this endless shit show. Rudkin is just an incompetent yes man. he knows where his bread is buttered. 

I also think that RM is no better than RVN. We'd just be swapping turds. 

Change really does need to come from the "Top" but whilst he fetishises about owning a Pep style club nothing will change. He needs to adapt the same way football is adapting. He needs to pivot and stay ahead of the curve. A young director of football would advise him on this. Top is clearly a rich man son completely out of his depth. 

Change is desperately needed but wont happen. 

We absolutely have the players to play that style of football in the championship- I’d argue the horrific effort at 433 by both cooper and ruud this season has been an abomination with zero style at all - none - horrendous football with no tactics 

 

we absolutely should be trying to play a brand of possession football - say what you want about Enzo but he just got Chelsea into the champions league playing exactly that way and yes I understand Chelsea have the budget to buy the players to play that style in the top division 

 

I don’t get the hate for Martin and his style at all - we seem to be forgetting Enzo got us out of this league in exactly that way

 

martin had 3 less wins than Enzo last year with a Southampton squad way worse than ours and went 20 unbeaten at one point 

 

time will tell and I could be wrong obviously but there is every chance he gets us playing some lovely stuff and right up the top of the league next year 

 

we need to be really careful what we wish for at this point - experiments with some of the names touted on here with putting youth first could easily see us do a Luton and nobody wants that 

 

Martin will blood the young talent we have alongside our experienced players that fit his style - which is most of our squad btw - which we don’t have the money to change on mass 

 

I don’t see any miracles in regards to the hierarchy but let’s stop taking this seasons frustrations out on the next manager before he has a chance to show what he can do 

[Number 6]

If we insist on trying to replicate Man City then surely we'd have more success getting some decent loan players from them.

[Jazzy_Jeff]

3 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

If we insist on trying to replicate Man City then surely we'd have more success getting some decent loan players from them.

2 from them and 2 from Chelsea for next season would do well 

[Winstonthedog]

The club is in such a fuc#ed up state ... finances, contracts, player quality, poor moral .... who in all honesty would any manager with ambition and pride even look at us .... we are going to lurch from poor manager to even poorer manager for the coming seasons, picking up failed managers or the ones no one else will employ along the way 

[dobbylcfc]

Anybody got the phone numbers of big nige and father O’Neil??? I’m sick of all this pep ball it’s killed the game we don’t see the mavericks anymore games are boring and dull. Get a grip top wake up and listen to the fanbase for once!!!!!

[Mon.is.a.god]

2 minutes ago, jv1 said:

Martin will blood the young talent we have alongside our experienced players that fit his style - which is most of our squad btw - which we don’t have the money to change on mass 

I keep reading this but it’s pure fantasy. The Southampton fans don’t agree with the above. He refused to promote any of their promising academy players during their championship campaign. 

 

Yes, Southampton had a young squad but these were all players brought in by Jason Wilcox and not from their academy. Mainly from Man City. Even Tyler Dibling was brought in before Martin was manager. Martin didn’t promote a single academy player during his stint there!

[Winstonthedog]

5 minutes ago, Jazzy_Jeff said:

2 from them and 2 from Chelsea for next season would do well 

And why would they loan to a club in such a poor state ... to destroy their moral and stifal their development??? 

[Jon the Hat]

25 minutes ago, DezFox said:

For everyone who persist with questioning who would want to come here and just saying given them a chance they got promoted once. You are part of the problem.  

 

For context there are roughly 11,000 professional football teams/managers globally, the Leicester and when everything is considered,  like infrastructure, training ground, budget, squad, ambition, fans, recent history. Surely the Leicester  job must rank in the top 10–15%. Take off your emotional hat. 

 

Despite current struggles, it is brilliant opportunity for an up-and-coming manager. Yet we continue to employ the merry go round of managers like Cooper, Dyche, Martin, or Van Nistelrooy. You’re telling me that there are only a couple of managers that would want it. I can see 60 odd (employed) in the football league alone that would see it as a step up. 

We must think bigger and be more inventive. 

 

xg, win ratio, recent record and honours are all obvious stats that you look at when getting a manger. However, we really should seriously considering the situation they were in, that’s nure.

For me, when you consider the Southampton squad last year and what Martin achieved with it, you could argue that he in fact under achieved. He was backed, and then again the following year and managed to build the only team worst than ours. 😂

 

So for all those people persisting with the argument that no one would come here, out of the 11,000 employed managers in the world I reckon there is only about 200 that wouldn’t come, even less if you see what we pay. You’re telling me that Cooper, Dyche, Martin, or Van Nistelrooy are the best in that. Bollocks are they, I find it so depressing that the same names pop up every time. Please just put some thought into it. 

Top 1% more like.  

[Ian Nacho]

The only logic I can see behind KP's insistence to play like Man City is that Top is trying to charm potential clients with a trendy brand of football .

[Foxes96]

Does this mean Winks and Vestergaard come back in? Possibly Ricardo stays as well?

 

                          Stolarczyk 

         Nelson - Vestergaard - Thomas 

                      Ricardo - Winks 

       Fatawu  -  Skipp  -  Bilal  -  Mavididi

                                 NEW

backup:

                              NEW  

           Souttar  -  Coady  -  Justin 

               Coulibaly - Braybrooke

McAteer  -  Cartwright - Monga - Alves

                              Evans 

[Winstonthedog]

2 minutes ago, dobbylcfc said:

Anybody got the phone numbers of big nige and father O’Neil??? I’m sick of all this pep ball it’s killed the game we don’t see the mavericks anymore games are boring and dull. Get a grip top wake up and listen to the fanbase for once!!!!!

Spot on .... lets have a personality someone with a style that suits the squad and get the best out of them ... not this tippy tippy... 1 pass forward 5 sideways and 10 back ... its boring it's killing football 

[Winstonthedog]

30 minutes ago, DezFox said:

For everyone who persist with questioning who would want to come here and just saying given them a chance they got promoted once. You are part of the problem.  

 

For context there are roughly 11,000 professional football teams/managers globally, the Leicester and when everything is considered,  like infrastructure, training ground, budget, squad, ambition, fans, recent history. Surely the Leicester  job must rank in the top 10–15%. Take off your emotional hat. 

 

Despite current struggles, it is brilliant opportunity for an up-and-coming manager. Yet we continue to employ the merry go round of managers like Cooper, Dyche, Martin, or Van Nistelrooy. You’re telling me that there are only a couple of managers that would want it. I can see 60 odd (employed) in the football league alone that would see it as a step up. 

We must think bigger and be more inventive. 

 

xg, win ratio, recent record and honours are all obvious stats that you look at when getting a manger. However, we really should seriously considering the situation they were in, that’s nure.

For me, when you consider the Southampton squad last year and what Martin achieved with it, you could argue that he in fact under achieved. He was backed, and then again the following year and managed to build the only team worst than ours. 😂

 

So for all those people persisting with the argument that no one would come here, out of the 11,000 employed managers in the world I reckon there is only about 200 that wouldn’t come, even less if you see what we pay. You’re telling me that Cooper, Dyche, Martin, or Van Nistelrooy are the best in that. Bollocks are they, I find it so depressing that the same names pop up every time. Please just put some thought into it. 

Your spot on certain people keep constantly putting the same names in the frame ... take a leaf out of Brightons book ... do your homework on the manager and take a longer term view ... instead of taking a view of everyone keeps talking about him he must be good ... THEY ARE OUT OF WORK FOR A REASON 

 

 

[Lesta2014]

16 minutes ago, Foxes96 said:

Does this mean Winks and Vestergaard come back in? Possibly Ricardo stays as well?

 

                          Stolarczyk 

         Nelson - Vestergaard - Thomas 

                      Ricardo - Winks 

       Fatawu  -  Skipp  -  Bilal  -  Mavididi

                                 NEW

backup:

                              NEW  

           Souttar  -  Coady  -  Justin 

               Coulibaly - Braybrooke

McAteer  -  Cartwright - Monga - Alves

                              Evans 

Coulibaly will go in Summer is think? Was cheap back up signing who hasn’t played and doubt his wages are huge? Few social media post suggest he’s not settled, he put something else up again yesterday. Can’t remember what it was now? 

[Muzzy_no7]

4 minutes ago, Lesta2014 said:

Coulibaly will go in Summer is think? Was cheap back up signing who hasn’t played and doubt his wages are huge? Few social media post suggest he’s not settled, he put something else up again yesterday. Can’t remember what it was now? 

He’ll be on loan at Le Havre with us covering 50% of his wages 😂

[JimJams]

Not a fan of his (potential) appointment, but I'll do what I always do and reserve judgement until I see how we go in preseason.

 

Now some people will bemoan that as being too early, but it's a pretty good barometer for me.

 

When we got Enzo in, I knew very little about what to expect, but you could see the implementation of his structure and tactics very early on.  Whether you liked it or not you could see how he was shaping the team and the roles being expected of each player.  The apprehension going into that season was down to how good the signings would be given we signed wingers for a system that heavily relies on them being able to beat players and create opportunity.  We got that right with Mav and Fatawu and it largely proved a success.

Then we got Coopers pre season.  He spent half of it trying to make Mav a makeshift striker, dropping in, killing our width.  We were terrible at the back and we couldn't score.  Despite him saying he was trying to tweak and add to what Enzo had done before, he essentially butchered the system, ripped out what made it effective, nullified our threat and that carried on through to the season.  You could see that his whole philosophy hinged on trying to get Mav to support Vardy centrally and it didn't work.  And that was that.

 

So Martin has said he's learned.  Let's hope so.  It's always interesting to see who we have lined up for preseason.  Whilst some only think of it as an exercise in fitness (and let's hope we get that sorted out ffs) I'll be intrigued to see if we opt for lower level opponents or a higher level.  Results don't particularly matter, but performance does.  Especially as we have a number of players to bring through into the senior side as well as the first 11. 

[DezFox]

40 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Top 1% more like.  

Yeah that’s fair when we think globally was just being conservative. 👍

[kingfox]

56 minutes ago, jv1 said:

we absolutely should be trying to play a brand of possession football - say what you want about Enzo but he just got Chelsea into the champions league playing exactly that way and yes I understand Chelsea have the budget to buy the players to play that style in the top division 

 

I don’t get the hate for Martin and his style at all - we seem to be forgetting Enzo got us out of this league in exactly that way

But the thing is, trying to play a brand of possession football hasn’t kept teams in the Premier League. 
 

The likes of Bournemouth, Forest, Brentford and Palace are not playing a brand of possession based football, and they are having solid success in the Premier League, all because they are following the right trends. 
 

I’m not disputing Russell Martin’s style of football entirely, it’s proven to be a successful formula in the Championship, but that’s just it, it works in the Championship, but doesn’t really work in the Premier League. 
 

If the Premier League continues to evolve like it is, then Russell Martin must evolve with it. 

[teblin]

To be honest, I don’t want Martin, I didn’t want Cooper and didn’t really know about Ruud at the time, but that has been poor.

 

Like when they appointed cooper I said I’ll get behind them if they prove me wrong, Martin has hopefully learnt from Southampton and maybe evolves slightly, but won’t hold my breath.

 

Problem is, he has to hit the ground running and any bad run fans will be on his back instantly.

 

That said, I’m not sure there is an appointment that will unite the fans.(in a positive way)