Russell Martin

[1963]

Sacked by Rangers.

[Muzzy_no7]

No surprise, awful start 

[Gamble92]

You just know this won't stop Top and Rudkin hiring him here in the future

[The whole world smiles]

General forum? Although it does spark a wider conversation about some of the managers we have tried to get in, in recent years like potter Russell and marsch a real whose who of over hyped new aged managers.

[Leicesterpool]

He's one of these annoying managers that will quickly get hired for another job even though hes crap. He will be on Monday night football in a couple stating he cant wait to get back into football. 

 

Where next Oxford United?

[Spudulike]

Did Rudders really want to appoint him or was it just the media, opposition fans and the bookies getting carried away? We do tend to go into radio silence whilst interviewing so perhaps he was never on the radar. Appreciate that we've had some appallingly misjudged recruitment in the past but the football world and his dog knew the score on the sacked Southampton manager. Cifuentes was number 1 choice, wasn't he?

[SkidsFox]

4 hours ago, Leicesterpool said:

He's one of these annoying managers that will quickly get hired for another job even though hes crap. He will be on Monday night football in a couple stating he cant wait to get back into football. 

 

Where next Oxford United?

Could be a vacancy soon at the City Ground!

[blue army 1988]

7 hours ago, Spudulike said:

Did Rudders really want to appoint him or was it just the media, opposition fans and the bookies getting carried away? We do tend to go into radio silence whilst interviewing so perhaps he was never on the radar. Appreciate that we've had some appallingly misjudged recruitment in the past but the football world and his dog knew the score on the sacked Southampton manager. Cifuentes was number 1 choice, wasn't he?

No one really knows if we were in for him or not. Wouldn't surprise me if we were and he choose Rangers instead.

I doubt Cifuentes was our first choice though. Doubt he was even second tbh

[Brainy]

I know he has his flaws in being one dimensional but is this not the only disaster of a job he's had??

[Super_horns]

18 minutes ago, Brainy said:

I know he has his flaws in being one dimensional but is this not the only disaster of a job he's had??

Southampton last season ended badly .

 

Because his style of play didn’t suit the squad there and they regularly got caught out.

 

Martin didn’t realise the main job at Rangers is to win games and by some distance or certainly show dominance .

There isn’t time to start playing fancy football and eventually hope it comes off after a few months .

[OntarioFox]

43 minutes ago, Brainy said:

I know he has his flaws in being one dimensional but is this not the only disaster of a job he's had??

His Southampton side that should have been challenging us for the title limped over the line via the playoffs, then proceeded to threaten Derby's infamous record - all while playing appalling one-dimensional football. I think it's safe to say he was garbage for them too.

 

I remember when we were supposedly in for him, people were pointing to the saint's record unbeaten run as part of the mental gymnastics, but there were a heap of draws in there where they actually dropped two points from a winning position - which is what ultimately cost them automatics. Even against Championship opposition they were getting found out playing Russellball.

Edited 6 October 2025 by OntarioFox

[AKCJ]

He inflicts his style of play on any squad regardless of quality or technique.

 

He thinks he's managing Barcelona. It would be a disaster to appoint someone like that.

[Brainy]

7 minutes ago, OntarioFox said:

His Southampton side that should have been challenging us for the title limped over the line via the playoffs, then proceeded to threaten Derby's infamous record - all while playing appalling one-dimensional football. I think it's safe to say he was garbage for them too.

 

I remember when we were supposedly in for him, people were pointing to the saint's record unbeaten run as part of the mental gymnastics, but there were a heap of draws in there where they actually dropped two points from a winning position - which is what ultimately cost them automatics. Even against Championship opposition they were getting found out playing Russellball.

So we're saying the 85/90+pts or whatever he got in that season was a disaster!? No doubt the PL stint was poor, but they were expected to be down there no? Absolutely he didn't help himself with the one dimensional football

 

In truth I'm not sure if he really set the world alight at MKD/Swansea, think he may have just been seen by Southampton as an up and coming young manager with an "appealing" brand of football. Think it's harsh to judge his overall time at Southampton as anything too critical. This is the first time he's totally stunk a place out though

[Brainy]

36 minutes ago, Super_horns said:

Southampton last season ended badly .

 

Because his style of play didn’t suit the squad there and they regularly got caught out.

 

Martin didn’t realise the main job at Rangers is to win games and by some distance or certainly show dominance .

There isn’t time to start playing fancy football and eventually hope it comes off after a few months .

It suited the squad the season before though? You'd then think the players signed last summer were bought in because they're suited to his style. I get it's a higher level but you don't generally see promoted sides rip up their recipe for success and implement a totally contrasting style of play, though I do think his style is very extreme as far as possession based football goes. 

 

There should be enough of a gulf in quality in Scotland for him to have been able to implement his style of play from the off without hindering the results. Absolutely no need for him to tip toe around the first few months. I've not really watched any of their games so no idea how it has ended this badly

[Fox92]

16 minutes ago, OntarioFox said:

His Southampton side that should have been challenging us for the title limped over the line via the playoffs, then proceeded to threaten Derby's infamous record - all while playing appalling one-dimensional football. I think it's safe to say he was garbage for them too.

 

No different to Sunderland last season who lost 5 consecutive games before winning the play offs. Who cares when how they finish a season if they end up promoted anyway.

 

Southampton won the play off semi final leg 3-1 on aggregate and then beat Leeds, who many people thought would win the league, in the final. They finished 10 points behind us, title winners, which was more closer than last season where the 4th placed team, Sunderland, finished 24 points behind the title winners Leeds. He was then sacked 16 games into last season and both new Southampton managers couldn't do anything either. In fact I think Southampton won a massive 2 points after sacking Martin.

 

I don't like him but he got 87 points in the Championship with Southampton, in fact lost the exact same amount of games as us (11).

[OntarioFox]

Think what I'm getting at is that his boner for playing a certain way got found out, a bit like Enzo did towards the back end of the season but on a more serious level. In our case it almost cost us the title - we pipped Ipswich by a single point in the end thanks to that pathetic run from February to April.

 

Then again, we'll never know just how messy it would have been if Enzo had stuck with us given he also struggles to deviate from the plan. Chelsea really struggled at first under him. But the answer certainly wasn't hiring a clueless wasteman like Cooper

Edited 6 October 2025 by OntarioFox

[Super_horns]

12 minutes ago, Brainy said:

It suited the squad the season before though? You'd then think the players signed last summer were bought in because they're suited to his style. I get it's a higher level but you don't generally see promoted sides rip up their recipe for success and implement a totally contrasting style of play, though I do think his style is very extreme as far as possession based football goes. 

 

There should be enough of a gulf in quality in Scotland for him to have been able to implement his style of play from the off without hindering the results. Absolutely no need for him to tip toe around the first few months. I've not really watched any of their games so no idea how it has ended this badly

I think they just got caught out on the ball more in the PL by teams pressing them higher up the pitch .

 

Admittedly Southampton didn’t do any better when he left and aren’t that good now either .

 

As I say at Rangers it is basically beat 9 other teams each week and then hope to  get past Celtic - funny thing is I think they actually played well v Celtic  but only drew and probably should have won but the other games bern poor .

Edited 6 October 2025 by Super_horns

[filbertway]

2 minutes ago, Super_horns said:

I think they just got caught out on the ball more in the PL by teams pressing them higher up the pitch .

 

Admittedly Southampton didn’t do any better when he left and aren’t that good now either .

 

As I say at Rangers it is basically beat 9 other teams each week and then hope to  get past Celtic - funny thing is I think they actually played well v Celtic  but only drew and probably should have won but the other games bern poor .

Well I think that was a case of 2 absolute staunch possession merchants coming together to create the worst old firm derby game in living memory.

[ClaphamFox]

9 hours ago, Spudulike said:

Did Rudders really want to appoint him or was it just the media, opposition fans and the bookies getting carried away? We do tend to go into radio silence whilst interviewing so perhaps he was never on the radar. Appreciate that we've had some appallingly misjudged recruitment in the past but the football world and his dog knew the score on the sacked Southampton manager. Cifuentes was number 1 choice, wasn't he?

Practically every time we appoint a new manager rumours appear just before the announcement heavily linking us to somebody else. Personally I suspect Cifuentes was always the preferred choice, but we'll never know for sure.

[indierich06]

I hate how dogmatic managers have become, it's this Guardiola mentality which he has inflicted the entire game. Managers HAVE to have a style, now, and that's the only way they're willing to play - they would sooner lose games playing to their system, than abandon it to win. Football is such a fluid game, opponents are always different, players are always different, it's a game that requires pragmatism - I think Martin is the most extreme example of 'well the system is the system'.

[Brainy]

23 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

No different to Sunderland last season who lost 5 consecutive games before winning the play offs. Who cares when how they finish a season if they end up promoted anyway.

 

Southampton won the play off semi final leg 3-1 on aggregate and then beat Leeds, who many people thought would win the league, in the final. They finished 10 points behind us, title winners, which was more closer than last season where the 4th placed team, Sunderland, finished 24 points behind the title winners Leeds. He was then sacked 16 games into last season and both new Southampton managers couldn't do anything either. In fact I think Southampton won a massive 2 points after sacking Martin.

 

I don't like him but he got 87 points in the Championship with Southampton, in fact lost the exact same amount of games as us (11).

People forget how insane the top four were that season. I'd have had Leeds down to finish ahead of them meaning 3rd was the best they could have done anyway. As you say who cares how they finish the season, I'm sure their goal was promotion no matter how it came. 

[Tiny earl]

11 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

Practically every time we appoint a new manager rumours appear just before the announcement heavily linking us to somebody else. Personally I suspect Cifuentes was always the preferred choice, but we'll never know for sure.

Danny Rohl seemed to be hot favourite originally.

[Dan]

He's so bad. Unconvinced by Cifuentes so far but thank god we dodged this one. For now.

[Dan]

1 hour ago, OntarioFox said:

His Southampton side that should have been challenging us for the title limped over the line via the playoffs, then proceeded to threaten Derby's infamous record - all while playing appalling one-dimensional football. I think it's safe to say he was garbage for them too.

 

I remember when we were supposedly in for him, people were pointing to the saint's record unbeaten run as part of the mental gymnastics, but there were a heap of draws in there where they actually dropped two points from a winning position - which is what ultimately cost them automatics. Even against Championship opposition they were getting found out playing Russellball.

Pretty sure over this unbeaten run they got fewer points than we did.

 

It's hard to bash him in that year as he ultimately got promoted but he was abject, terrible in the Premier League and his stint at Rangers is up there with as bad a tenure as I've seen at any club anywhere. We've hit a point where Rangers not beating Falkirk and Dundee is of no surprise.

 

The Brugge games too  they're far better than this.

[Leicesterpool]

2 hours ago, Super_horns said:

Southampton last season ended badly .

 

Because his style of play didn’t suit the squad there and they regularly got caught out.

 

Martin didn’t realise the main job at Rangers is to win games and by some distance or certainly show dominance .

There isn’t time to start playing fancy football and eventually hope it comes off after a few months .

Southampton fans werent a fan even when they got promoted. Seems like theres constant theme... if you do half a decent job at Swansea you considered good enough to manage anywhere.