Martin Out

[SafewayFox]

2 hours ago, BenTheFox said:

What you have successfully argued is that Brighton are well run and we're not. I didn't need to be convinced of that. I was just presenting contrary evidence to the idea that you can't be successful by having significantly more possession than the opposition. 

Not at all.

 

Not only are they well run but to play a certain style, they have a forward thinking plan.

 

In essence, they’ve upgraded from Bissouma pretty much with every replacement, allowing them to play the style that they play.

 

It’s deeper than being well run, it allows for them to play possession football.

 

 

[RedSoxUK]

4 hours ago, BenTheFox said:

We definitely saw a change in approach against Doncaster. There was a change in formation and there was definitely not as much emphasis on playing the ball around the back, particularly between the goalkeeper and the central defenders. We even saw the keeper going long from goal kicks. It wasn't a great performance but we still had plenty of opportunities to have scored more goals. The approach was certainly more pragmatic, but we still give away many chances. It seems to me that he just knew that he had to win and that him having to abandon some of his principles to do that is very telling. It will be typical if we go on a 4/5 game winning run being more pragmatic and then he starts to feel comfortable and reverts back to type. In the championship playoffs he went to West Brom with a back 5 and got a 0-0 draw and then beat them comfortably at home in the return leg and then won a play-off final against Leeds with <40% possession and then reverted back to type once they were promoted. 

Few things here. Farke also wants his team to have the ball, and I would say that Leeds team was better on paper than Southampton. Likewise when they went up and played the big boys, it's not like they had 60%+ in those games. They had: 43%, 41%, 44%, 38%, 45%, 42% Vs the 'Top 6', and still lost hopelessly, obviously. I don't think he went into those play off games with a 'ignore what I've been saying the last 46 games' mindset. Their two league games Vs  Leeds were 43%, and 47%.

 

We had 59% Vs Donny in the first half and Martin would have wanted to """kill the game""" in the 2nd,  that didn't happen. We were clearly more purposeful with the ball in possession and the change of shape / personnel probably contributed to that more than any Martin instruction and it helps that Doncaster are a shit bog standard L1 team.

 

Tldr; I don't think he's going to revert to type, because he hasn't actually changed much other than the shape - something he changed only because we were leaking goals.

[Lesta Legend]

5 hours ago, BenTheFox said:

Brighton have averaged 60% possession this season and are third in the premier league. Having more possession than the opposition isn't in itself a play style. There are many different ways of playing that involve having more of the ball than the opposition. I do think that Russell Martin's brand of football is largely ineffective though. 

Brighton are also second for most accurate LONG balls, the best in the league (by some distance) for possession won in the final 3rd and shots on target and big chances. 
 

Get the ball forward quickly, press from the front which is a clear template for success and the opposite of RM approach. 
 

I hope he sticks with the change in approach. 

[sm1]

Football's pretty simple, attack the opposition when they're at their most vulnerable. This is on transition when they've just lost the ball. We spend ages pissing around when this happens allowing teams to get back into shape. No ones saying hoof the ball at every opportunity, but when you get the ball and the opposition isn't set defensively, hit the ball long and get behind them. Its a very simple concept that Martin, with all his Fifa badges, can't seem to understand. 

Edited 23 hours ago by sm1

[FoxTalkFox]

Does he definitely go if we get beaten by Oxford City?

[Wymsey]

If he's open from now to implementing some tactical flexibility here and there where appropriate during games like against Doncaster (where it worked overall) away from his preferred system, think he'll stay for a good while and be a success.

Edited 19 hours ago by Wymsey

[AdcockFox]

From the Athletic (don't think it's posted anywhere else) and quotes a FT member -- who was it? 

 

Plenty of managers are known for preferring to enlist a possession-based style of football: Pep Guardiola, Enzo Maresca, Xavi Hernandez, etc.
Numerous managers take pride in their appearance, wear expensive clothes on the touchline and have a partner or wife who was or is a model: Mikel Arteta, Matthias Jaissle, Diego Simeone, etc.
A plethora of managers have a ginormous ego and think they’re very good at what they do. Well, pretty much all of them.
Russell Martin is all of the above. However, none of the above seem to be disliked, castigated or even reviled as much as the head coach of Leicester City, who 10 years ago were Premier League champions but now find themselves struggling in League One.
Why? Well, there’s one very obvious answer to that question given that, heading into the weekend, Martin had overseen four wins from his previous 31 league matches: a record stretching across three seasons, three clubs and three leagues (also Southampton in the Premier League and Rangers in Scotland).
However, there’s more to it than that. Even while Leicester were registering a much-needed 4-3 victory at Stockport County last month, fans were still singing that Martin’s football was “s”.
So why does Russell Martin seem to upset so many people?
“He’s probably one of the best managers I’ve worked for,” Leicester goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, who also played for Martin at Southampton, said on the Fozcast podcast this week.
“People who know him will agree with what I say. He’s an unbelievable human being: so good with the lads, so good with the staff.
“There’s such a great atmosphere around the place, but unfortunately he’s got this thing with the amount of abuse he gets.”
A forum thread on fan site Foxes Talk entitled “Martin out” is 192 pages long. It began before the 40-year-old’s appointment had even been made official and includes criticism and comments about his football, his personality, his appearance and his wife, ex-Celebrity Big Brother contestant Lucy Pinder.
Sample post: “Russell, if you’re reading this I do hate you and yes it is personal. I hope you get sent to the ironic punishment division in hell and get forced to watch your own football for the rest of eternity.”
Martin is a walking culture war and much of it has to do with the style of football his teams play. Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis and, perhaps most famously, Steve Bruce at Newcastle United were lambasted, unfairly or otherwise, for prioritising physicality and direct football (AKA hoofball). Football dinosaurs, they said.
Martin, a symbol of tippy-tappy football and a poster boy for style over substance, is the opposite and, tactically, it’s a familiar story at Leicester. His teams all do the same: dominate possession, control the game with the ball, suffocate the opposition and play their way to victory. That last part is purely theoretical.
A football manager gives instructions on the ssideline
Russell Martin issues instructions during a 1-1 draw against Notts County in AugustDavid Rogers/Getty Images
Leicester, like Rangers and Southampton before them, register possession figures that resemble Fahrenheit temperatures in a north European summer — 79 against Barnsley recently, 76 against Milton Keynes Dons or 74 versus Burton Albion.
Martin’s side didn’t win a single one of those matches, though. The last one they won before the weekend, the win at Stockport, saw them have 49 per cent of the ball.
If that’s a glimpse into why fans are annoyed at what they perceive to be Martin’s stubbornness (annoyed being an understatement), a recent exchange between him and a Leicester supporter after an EFL Trophy match at Stevenage, which has been viewed more than three million times on social media, further underlined the argument.
Fan: “I want you to succeed, don’t play the football the owners want you play, play the football we want you to play. We’re not giving you personal abuse…”
Martin: “Well, you are…”
Fan: “Yeah, but we gave (Enzo) Maresca it, we’ve given every manager…”
Martin: “We’ve had 135 shots in five games, that’s attacking football.”
Fan: “But it’s not.”
Martin: “But it is… 135 shots in five games is attacking.”
Fan: “But it’s predictable, it takes so long to get to those chances.”
Martin: “I disagree, we’re gonna disagree.”
Fan: “You are, but you’re gonna be another manager that goes, then we go around in circles again, don’t we?”
Martin: “That’s fine, I live and die by the sword. You got promoted with Enzo, by the way. You’ve been s* since then.”
Fan: “We didn’t like that football.”
Martin: “But you got promoted with 96 points (it was actually 97). What do you want?”
It is unclear if Martin knew he was being filmed at the time. The reference to Maresa certainly feels valid: the Italian, who is top of the Premier League after seven straight wins in charge of Manchester City, was booed at times during Leicester’s 2023-24 Championship promotion season, with his patient passing game causing frustration among supporters.
When The Athletic chats to people who have worked with Martin and Leicester fans who haven’t, the view is that those who work with him really like him, but those that follow the football teams he manages don’t, at least in the past couple of years. At Rangers, he was a joke figure, hounded out after 17 games and far too many draws, while at Southampton, he earned high praise from Guardiola (“I am going to learn a lot with Russell”) but couldn’t avoid the sack.
There are also far deeper problems at Leicester than the head coach, who has been given an incredibly young and inexperienced team with which to earn promotion, a fairly rare notion at that level where experience is vital.
Steve Cooper (former head coach) and Marc Albrighton (former player) have stated in recent days that there are wider issues at the club. So, yes, while humiliating home defeats against Oxford United, Peterborough United and Burton are on Martin as much as anyone, the bigger picture at Leicester, one of incompetence, dysfunction and decline, is almost as sorrowful as the 2015-16 Premier League title win was miraculous.
A former colleague of his at a previous club described Martin to The Athletic as an excellent coach, hard-working, a nice guy, down to earth, a pleasure to work with and, while he could be stubborn and had an ego, you would have to go a long way to find a head coach who wasn’t those things.
He said Martin was generally well respected across the game — having “come from nothing” after a playing career spent mainly at Wycombe Wanderers, Peterborough and Norwich City — and mentioned he runs a charity, the Russell Martin Foundation, which “works to impact positively upon the lives of children, young people and adults through football, education, health and improvement,” according to its website.
“I don’t know why I upset so many people,” Martin said recently. “One of the players asked me this week why I am so criticised outside of here, because obviously they see stuff, and I can’t answer it.
“It has become really personal from some guys in the media and definitely from fans. It is what it is, and I have to deal with it.”
His touchline demeanour perhaps doesn’t help. Against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, with Leicester in crisis mode just a point above the League One drop zone, he spends a lot of time with his hands in his pockets.
It’s a familiar, languid pose. With the loose trousers, the long-sleeved navy top over a white undershirt, the manicured beard, the expensive watch and the coiffured mane that he incessantly tucks behind his ears, Martin looks like the kind of guy who is at a bar trying to get someone’s attention for another bottle of Moet.
Russell Martin strikes a signature pose on the touchline against DoncasterPlumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images
None of this matters in the slightest, as Martin well knows, if you’re winning. But when you’re in League One, drawing with Doncaster (whose supporters sing, “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” at Martin while the score is 0-0), it adds to the impression of someone who prioritises style over substance, however unfair that might be.
And yet, there are signs here that Martin is prepared to alter his principles. For a start, he switches formation to 3-4-3 for the first time this season and, while Leicester play lovely stuff through midfield at times and incessantly pass out from the back (sometimes quite badly), they also unleash brisk counters and even some direct football.
They ride their luck, but have 54 per cent of the ball, by far their lowest for any home league game this season, and deserve their 2-1 victory, given to them via stunning strikes from John Lundstram and Kamari Doyle.
“How s* must you be, we’re winning at home,” the Leicester supporters sing. Martin avoids abuse from the home fans on this occasion and, after much hair-tucking and sleeve-rolling during a nervy finale, he appears ecstatic and relieved at full time.
As the players embark on a lap of honour for beating Doncaster, Martin doesn’t join them, staying in his technical area with his staff, eventually greeting every player heading down the tunnel with hand-slaps and hugs. There are relationships to be repaired and lots of points still to be won, but this could — could — be a reset moment.
Bromley away on Tuesday. Martin lives to fight another day.
 

[Narborough Road Fox]

3 hours ago, FoxTalkFox said:

Does he definitely go if we get beaten by Oxford City?

Doubt it. Doesn't actually stop us getting promoted.

[ARM1968]

Get spanked 4-0 tomorrow and hopefully that’s enough. Sick of the manager merry go round but if they actually got a decent one in we’d get behind them. Russell was never that. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

10 hours ago, AdcockFox said:

From the Athletic (don't think it's posted anywhere else) and quotes a FT member -- who was it? 

 

Plenty of managers are known for preferring to enlist a possession-based style of football: Pep Guardiola, Enzo Maresca, Xavi Hernandez, etc.
Numerous managers take pride in their appearance, wear expensive clothes on the touchline and have a partner or wife who was or is a model: Mikel Arteta, Matthias Jaissle, Diego Simeone, etc.
A plethora of managers have a ginormous ego and think they’re very good at what they do. Well, pretty much all of them.
Russell Martin is all of the above. However, none of the above seem to be disliked, castigated or even reviled as much as the head coach of Leicester City, who 10 years ago were Premier League champions but now find themselves struggling in League One.
Why? Well, there’s one very obvious answer to that question given that, heading into the weekend, Martin had overseen four wins from his previous 31 league matches: a record stretching across three seasons, three clubs and three leagues (also Southampton in the Premier League and Rangers in Scotland).
However, there’s more to it than that. Even while Leicester were registering a much-needed 4-3 victory at Stockport County last month, fans were still singing that Martin’s football was “s”.
So why does Russell Martin seem to upset so many people?
“He’s probably one of the best managers I’ve worked for,” Leicester goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, who also played for Martin at Southampton, said on the Fozcast podcast this week.
“People who know him will agree with what I say. He’s an unbelievable human being: so good with the lads, so good with the staff.
“There’s such a great atmosphere around the place, but unfortunately he’s got this thing with the amount of abuse he gets.”
A forum thread on fan site Foxes Talk entitled “Martin out” is 192 pages long. It began before the 40-year-old’s appointment had even been made official and includes criticism and comments about his football, his personality, his appearance and his wife, ex-Celebrity Big Brother contestant Lucy Pinder.
Sample post: “Russell, if you’re reading this I do hate you and yes it is personal. I hope you get sent to the ironic punishment division in hell and get forced to watch your own football for the rest of eternity.”
Martin is a walking culture war and much of it has to do with the style of football his teams play. Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis and, perhaps most famously, Steve Bruce at Newcastle United were lambasted, unfairly or otherwise, for prioritising physicality and direct football (AKA hoofball). Football dinosaurs, they said.
Martin, a symbol of tippy-tappy football and a poster boy for style over substance, is the opposite and, tactically, it’s a familiar story at Leicester. His teams all do the same: dominate possession, control the game with the ball, suffocate the opposition and play their way to victory. That last part is purely theoretical.
A football manager gives instructions on the ssideline
Russell Martin issues instructions during a 1-1 draw against Notts County in AugustDavid Rogers/Getty Images
Leicester, like Rangers and Southampton before them, register possession figures that resemble Fahrenheit temperatures in a north European summer — 79 against Barnsley recently, 76 against Milton Keynes Dons or 74 versus Burton Albion.
Martin’s side didn’t win a single one of those matches, though. The last one they won before the weekend, the win at Stockport, saw them have 49 per cent of the ball.
If that’s a glimpse into why fans are annoyed at what they perceive to be Martin’s stubbornness (annoyed being an understatement), a recent exchange between him and a Leicester supporter after an EFL Trophy match at Stevenage, which has been viewed more than three million times on social media, further underlined the argument.
Fan: “I want you to succeed, don’t play the football the owners want you play, play the football we want you to play. We’re not giving you personal abuse…”
Martin: “Well, you are…”
Fan: “Yeah, but we gave (Enzo) Maresca it, we’ve given every manager…”
Martin: “We’ve had 135 shots in five games, that’s attacking football.”
Fan: “But it’s not.”
Martin: “But it is… 135 shots in five games is attacking.”
Fan: “But it’s predictable, it takes so long to get to those chances.”
Martin: “I disagree, we’re gonna disagree.”
Fan: “You are, but you’re gonna be another manager that goes, then we go around in circles again, don’t we?”
Martin: “That’s fine, I live and die by the sword. You got promoted with Enzo, by the way. You’ve been s* since then.”
Fan: “We didn’t like that football.”
Martin: “But you got promoted with 96 points (it was actually 97). What do you want?”
It is unclear if Martin knew he was being filmed at the time. The reference to Maresa certainly feels valid: the Italian, who is top of the Premier League after seven straight wins in charge of Manchester City, was booed at times during Leicester’s 2023-24 Championship promotion season, with his patient passing game causing frustration among supporters.
When The Athletic chats to people who have worked with Martin and Leicester fans who haven’t, the view is that those who work with him really like him, but those that follow the football teams he manages don’t, at least in the past couple of years. At Rangers, he was a joke figure, hounded out after 17 games and far too many draws, while at Southampton, he earned high praise from Guardiola (“I am going to learn a lot with Russell”) but couldn’t avoid the sack.
There are also far deeper problems at Leicester than the head coach, who has been given an incredibly young and inexperienced team with which to earn promotion, a fairly rare notion at that level where experience is vital.
Steve Cooper (former head coach) and Marc Albrighton (former player) have stated in recent days that there are wider issues at the club. So, yes, while humiliating home defeats against Oxford United, Peterborough United and Burton are on Martin as much as anyone, the bigger picture at Leicester, one of incompetence, dysfunction and decline, is almost as sorrowful as the 2015-16 Premier League title win was miraculous.
A former colleague of his at a previous club described Martin to The Athletic as an excellent coach, hard-working, a nice guy, down to earth, a pleasure to work with and, while he could be stubborn and had an ego, you would have to go a long way to find a head coach who wasn’t those things.
He said Martin was generally well respected across the game — having “come from nothing” after a playing career spent mainly at Wycombe Wanderers, Peterborough and Norwich City — and mentioned he runs a charity, the Russell Martin Foundation, which “works to impact positively upon the lives of children, young people and adults through football, education, health and improvement,” according to its website.
“I don’t know why I upset so many people,” Martin said recently. “One of the players asked me this week why I am so criticised outside of here, because obviously they see stuff, and I can’t answer it.
“It has become really personal from some guys in the media and definitely from fans. It is what it is, and I have to deal with it.”
His touchline demeanour perhaps doesn’t help. Against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, with Leicester in crisis mode just a point above the League One drop zone, he spends a lot of time with his hands in his pockets.
It’s a familiar, languid pose. With the loose trousers, the long-sleeved navy top over a white undershirt, the manicured beard, the expensive watch and the coiffured mane that he incessantly tucks behind his ears, Martin looks like the kind of guy who is at a bar trying to get someone’s attention for another bottle of Moet.
Russell Martin strikes a signature pose on the touchline against DoncasterPlumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images
None of this matters in the slightest, as Martin well knows, if you’re winning. But when you’re in League One, drawing with Doncaster (whose supporters sing, “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” at Martin while the score is 0-0), it adds to the impression of someone who prioritises style over substance, however unfair that might be.
And yet, there are signs here that Martin is prepared to alter his principles. For a start, he switches formation to 3-4-3 for the first time this season and, while Leicester play lovely stuff through midfield at times and incessantly pass out from the back (sometimes quite badly), they also unleash brisk counters and even some direct football.
They ride their luck, but have 54 per cent of the ball, by far their lowest for any home league game this season, and deserve their 2-1 victory, given to them via stunning strikes from John Lundstram and Kamari Doyle.
“How s* must you be, we’re winning at home,” the Leicester supporters sing. Martin avoids abuse from the home fans on this occasion and, after much hair-tucking and sleeve-rolling during a nervy finale, he appears ecstatic and relieved at full time.
As the players embark on a lap of honour for beating Doncaster, Martin doesn’t join them, staying in his technical area with his staff, eventually greeting every player heading down the tunnel with hand-slaps and hugs. There are relationships to be repaired and lots of points still to be won, but this could — could — be a reset moment.
Bromley away on Tuesday. Martin lives to fight another day.
 

Wonder if Martin picked up the tab for this piece of client journalism or whether  Anthony went 50/50 with him.

 

Who wrote it btw? Tanner?

[OriginalRobboFOX]

Imagine quoting FT - scraping the barrel for a meaningful quote 😂

[Les-TA-Jon]

10 hours ago, AdcockFox said:

From the Athletic (don't think it's posted anywhere else) and quotes a FT member -- who was it? 

 

Plenty of managers are known for preferring to enlist a possession-based style of football: Pep Guardiola, Enzo Maresca, Xavi Hernandez, etc.
Numerous managers take pride in their appearance, wear expensive clothes on the touchline and have a partner or wife who was or is a model: Mikel Arteta, Matthias Jaissle, Diego Simeone, etc.
A plethora of managers have a ginormous ego and think they’re very good at what they do. Well, pretty much all of them.
Russell Martin is all of the above. However, none of the above seem to be disliked, castigated or even reviled as much as the head coach of Leicester City, who 10 years ago were Premier League champions but now find themselves struggling in League One.

“There’s such a great atmosphere around the place, but unfortunately he’s got this thing with the amount of abuse he gets.”

When The Athletic chats to people who have worked with Martin and Leicester fans who haven’t, the view is that those who work with him really like him, but those that follow the football teams he manages don’t, at least in the past couple of years.

“I don’t know why I upset so many people,” Martin said recently. “One of the players asked me this week why I am so criticised outside of here, because obviously they see stuff, and I can’t answer it.
“It has become really personal from some guys in the media and definitely from fans. It is what it is, and I have to deal with it.”

His touchline demeanour perhaps doesn’t help. Against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, with Leicester in crisis mode just a point above the League One drop zone, he spends a lot of time with his hands in his pockets.
It’s a familiar, languid pose. With the loose trousers, the long-sleeved navy top over a white undershirt, the manicured beard, the expensive watch and the coiffured mane that he incessantly tucks behind his ears, Martin looks like the kind of guy who is at a bar trying to get someone’s attention for another bottle of Moet.

Not sure why everyone keeps focusing on this sort of stuff. Or asking questions like 'why does Russell Martin get so much hate?' as if it's some sort of mystery? 

 

He simply doesn't win enough games of football and it's largely down to self imposed weaknesses/limitations. 

[BenTheFox]

10 hours ago, AdcockFox said:

From the Athletic (don't think it's posted anywhere else) and quotes a FT member -- who was it? 

 

Plenty of managers are known for preferring to enlist a possession-based style of football: Pep Guardiola, Enzo Maresca, Xavi Hernandez, etc.
Numerous managers take pride in their appearance, wear expensive clothes on the touchline and have a partner or wife who was or is a model: Mikel Arteta, Matthias Jaissle, Diego Simeone, etc.
A plethora of managers have a ginormous ego and think they’re very good at what they do. Well, pretty much all of them.
Russell Martin is all of the above. However, none of the above seem to be disliked, castigated or even reviled as much as the head coach of Leicester City, who 10 years ago were Premier League champions but now find themselves struggling in League One.
Why? Well, there’s one very obvious answer to that question given that, heading into the weekend, Martin had overseen four wins from his previous 31 league matches: a record stretching across three seasons, three clubs and three leagues (also Southampton in the Premier League and Rangers in Scotland).
However, there’s more to it than that. Even while Leicester were registering a much-needed 4-3 victory at Stockport County last month, fans were still singing that Martin’s football was “s”.
So why does Russell Martin seem to upset so many people?
“He’s probably one of the best managers I’ve worked for,” Leicester goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, who also played for Martin at Southampton, said on the Fozcast podcast this week.
“People who know him will agree with what I say. He’s an unbelievable human being: so good with the lads, so good with the staff.
“There’s such a great atmosphere around the place, but unfortunately he’s got this thing with the amount of abuse he gets.”
A forum thread on fan site Foxes Talk entitled “Martin out” is 192 pages long. It began before the 40-year-old’s appointment had even been made official and includes criticism and comments about his football, his personality, his appearance and his wife, ex-Celebrity Big Brother contestant Lucy Pinder.
Sample post: “Russell, if you’re reading this I do hate you and yes it is personal. I hope you get sent to the ironic punishment division in hell and get forced to watch your own football for the rest of eternity.”
Martin is a walking culture war and much of it has to do with the style of football his teams play. Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis and, perhaps most famously, Steve Bruce at Newcastle United were lambasted, unfairly or otherwise, for prioritising physicality and direct football (AKA hoofball). Football dinosaurs, they said.
Martin, a symbol of tippy-tappy football and a poster boy for style over substance, is the opposite and, tactically, it’s a familiar story at Leicester. His teams all do the same: dominate possession, control the game with the ball, suffocate the opposition and play their way to victory. That last part is purely theoretical.
A football manager gives instructions on the ssideline
Russell Martin issues instructions during a 1-1 draw against Notts County in AugustDavid Rogers/Getty Images
Leicester, like Rangers and Southampton before them, register possession figures that resemble Fahrenheit temperatures in a north European summer — 79 against Barnsley recently, 76 against Milton Keynes Dons or 74 versus Burton Albion.
Martin’s side didn’t win a single one of those matches, though. The last one they won before the weekend, the win at Stockport, saw them have 49 per cent of the ball.
If that’s a glimpse into why fans are annoyed at what they perceive to be Martin’s stubbornness (annoyed being an understatement), a recent exchange between him and a Leicester supporter after an EFL Trophy match at Stevenage, which has been viewed more than three million times on social media, further underlined the argument.
Fan: “I want you to succeed, don’t play the football the owners want you play, play the football we want you to play. We’re not giving you personal abuse…”
Martin: “Well, you are…”
Fan: “Yeah, but we gave (Enzo) Maresca it, we’ve given every manager…”
Martin: “We’ve had 135 shots in five games, that’s attacking football.”
Fan: “But it’s not.”
Martin: “But it is… 135 shots in five games is attacking.”
Fan: “But it’s predictable, it takes so long to get to those chances.”
Martin: “I disagree, we’re gonna disagree.”
Fan: “You are, but you’re gonna be another manager that goes, then we go around in circles again, don’t we?”
Martin: “That’s fine, I live and die by the sword. You got promoted with Enzo, by the way. You’ve been s* since then.”
Fan: “We didn’t like that football.”
Martin: “But you got promoted with 96 points (it was actually 97). What do you want?”
It is unclear if Martin knew he was being filmed at the time. The reference to Maresa certainly feels valid: the Italian, who is top of the Premier League after seven straight wins in charge of Manchester City, was booed at times during Leicester’s 2023-24 Championship promotion season, with his patient passing game causing frustration among supporters.
When The Athletic chats to people who have worked with Martin and Leicester fans who haven’t, the view is that those who work with him really like him, but those that follow the football teams he manages don’t, at least in the past couple of years. At Rangers, he was a joke figure, hounded out after 17 games and far too many draws, while at Southampton, he earned high praise from Guardiola (“I am going to learn a lot with Russell”) but couldn’t avoid the sack.
There are also far deeper problems at Leicester than the head coach, who has been given an incredibly young and inexperienced team with which to earn promotion, a fairly rare notion at that level where experience is vital.
Steve Cooper (former head coach) and Marc Albrighton (former player) have stated in recent days that there are wider issues at the club. So, yes, while humiliating home defeats against Oxford United, Peterborough United and Burton are on Martin as much as anyone, the bigger picture at Leicester, one of incompetence, dysfunction and decline, is almost as sorrowful as the 2015-16 Premier League title win was miraculous.
A former colleague of his at a previous club described Martin to The Athletic as an excellent coach, hard-working, a nice guy, down to earth, a pleasure to work with and, while he could be stubborn and had an ego, you would have to go a long way to find a head coach who wasn’t those things.
He said Martin was generally well respected across the game — having “come from nothing” after a playing career spent mainly at Wycombe Wanderers, Peterborough and Norwich City — and mentioned he runs a charity, the Russell Martin Foundation, which “works to impact positively upon the lives of children, young people and adults through football, education, health and improvement,” according to its website.
“I don’t know why I upset so many people,” Martin said recently. “One of the players asked me this week why I am so criticised outside of here, because obviously they see stuff, and I can’t answer it.
“It has become really personal from some guys in the media and definitely from fans. It is what it is, and I have to deal with it.”
His touchline demeanour perhaps doesn’t help. Against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, with Leicester in crisis mode just a point above the League One drop zone, he spends a lot of time with his hands in his pockets.
It’s a familiar, languid pose. With the loose trousers, the long-sleeved navy top over a white undershirt, the manicured beard, the expensive watch and the coiffured mane that he incessantly tucks behind his ears, Martin looks like the kind of guy who is at a bar trying to get someone’s attention for another bottle of Moet.
Russell Martin strikes a signature pose on the touchline against DoncasterPlumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images
None of this matters in the slightest, as Martin well knows, if you’re winning. But when you’re in League One, drawing with Doncaster (whose supporters sing, “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” at Martin while the score is 0-0), it adds to the impression of someone who prioritises style over substance, however unfair that might be.
And yet, there are signs here that Martin is prepared to alter his principles. For a start, he switches formation to 3-4-3 for the first time this season and, while Leicester play lovely stuff through midfield at times and incessantly pass out from the back (sometimes quite badly), they also unleash brisk counters and even some direct football.
They ride their luck, but have 54 per cent of the ball, by far their lowest for any home league game this season, and deserve their 2-1 victory, given to them via stunning strikes from John Lundstram and Kamari Doyle.
“How s* must you be, we’re winning at home,” the Leicester supporters sing. Martin avoids abuse from the home fans on this occasion and, after much hair-tucking and sleeve-rolling during a nervy finale, he appears ecstatic and relieved at full time.
As the players embark on a lap of honour for beating Doncaster, Martin doesn’t join them, staying in his technical area with his staff, eventually greeting every player heading down the tunnel with hand-slaps and hugs. There are relationships to be repaired and lots of points still to be won, but this could — could — be a reset moment.
Bromley away on Tuesday. Martin lives to fight another day.
 

Why is Russell so hated? 

 

Also  'Leicester City...now find themselves struggling in League One.'

 

Hardly a mystery. 

[Dames]

Nice little puff piece. I’m sure he’s a sound bloke behind the scenes but the reality is that football is a results business and he doesnt get enough good results to back up his arrogance and stubbornness. The only person whos going to suffer in the long run is Russell Martin because no club will touch him after failing with Leicester City in League One. 
 

At this point it is in both the clubs and his own self interest to show a little flexibility and learn from the constant mistakes. 

[PingCower]

I can’t be doing with the hate and the personal attacks against RM, or anyone else for that matter. It’s completely out of order. My beef is with the style of football he plays and the apparent lack of tactical nous. Nothing personal, just play beautiful football, get the most out of the players and win some games. Please.🙏 

[BenTheFox]

18 minutes ago, BenTheFox said:

Why is Russell so hated? 

 

Also  'Leicester City...now find themselves struggling in League One.'

 

Hardly a mystery. 

I'll reiterate that I don't actually hate him. I just want Leicester to win some games of football, and under him we haven't won enough. 

[Spudulike]

17 hours ago, sm1 said:

Football's pretty simple, attack the opposition when they're at their most vulnerable. This is on transition when they've just lost the ball. We spend ages pissing around when this happens allowing teams to get back into shape. No ones saying hoof the ball at every opportunity, but when you get the ball and the opposition isn't set defensively, hit the ball long and get behind them. Its a very simple concept that Martin, with all his Fifa badges, can't seem to understand. 

That's it. 100%. We've been seeing it for season after season. We won the Premier League by being the best counter attacking team ever. Never seen a better one. 

 

It's so obvious and you're right, why don't they understand? So frustrating.

[Samilktray]

3 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

That's it. 100%. We've been seeing it for season after season. We won the Premier League by being the best counter attacking team ever. Never seen a better one. 

 

It's so obvious and you're right, why don't they understand? So frustrating.

[AKCJ]

11 hours ago, AdcockFox said:

From the Athletic (don't think it's posted anywhere else) and quotes a FT member -- who was it? 

 

Plenty of managers are known for preferring to enlist a possession-based style of football: Pep Guardiola, Enzo Maresca, Xavi Hernandez, etc.
Numerous managers take pride in their appearance, wear expensive clothes on the touchline and have a partner or wife who was or is a model: Mikel Arteta, Matthias Jaissle, Diego Simeone, etc.
A plethora of managers have a ginormous ego and think they’re very good at what they do. Well, pretty much all of them.
Russell Martin is all of the above. However, none of the above seem to be disliked, castigated or even reviled as much as the head coach of Leicester City, who 10 years ago were Premier League champions but now find themselves struggling in League One.
Why? Well, there’s one very obvious answer to that question given that, heading into the weekend, Martin had overseen four wins from his previous 31 league matches: a record stretching across three seasons, three clubs and three leagues (also Southampton in the Premier League and Rangers in Scotland).
However, there’s more to it than that. Even while Leicester were registering a much-needed 4-3 victory at Stockport County last month, fans were still singing that Martin’s football was “s”.
So why does Russell Martin seem to upset so many people?
“He’s probably one of the best managers I’ve worked for,” Leicester goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, who also played for Martin at Southampton, said on the Fozcast podcast this week.
“People who know him will agree with what I say. He’s an unbelievable human being: so good with the lads, so good with the staff.
“There’s such a great atmosphere around the place, but unfortunately he’s got this thing with the amount of abuse he gets.”
A forum thread on fan site Foxes Talk entitled “Martin out” is 192 pages long. It began before the 40-year-old’s appointment had even been made official and includes criticism and comments about his football, his personality, his appearance and his wife, ex-Celebrity Big Brother contestant Lucy Pinder.
Sample post: “Russell, if you’re reading this I do hate you and yes it is personal. I hope you get sent to the ironic punishment division in hell and get forced to watch your own football for the rest of eternity.”
Martin is a walking culture war and much of it has to do with the style of football his teams play. Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis and, perhaps most famously, Steve Bruce at Newcastle United were lambasted, unfairly or otherwise, for prioritising physicality and direct football (AKA hoofball). Football dinosaurs, they said.
Martin, a symbol of tippy-tappy football and a poster boy for style over substance, is the opposite and, tactically, it’s a familiar story at Leicester. His teams all do the same: dominate possession, control the game with the ball, suffocate the opposition and play their way to victory. That last part is purely theoretical.
A football manager gives instructions on the ssideline
Russell Martin issues instructions during a 1-1 draw against Notts County in AugustDavid Rogers/Getty Images
Leicester, like Rangers and Southampton before them, register possession figures that resemble Fahrenheit temperatures in a north European summer — 79 against Barnsley recently, 76 against Milton Keynes Dons or 74 versus Burton Albion.
Martin’s side didn’t win a single one of those matches, though. The last one they won before the weekend, the win at Stockport, saw them have 49 per cent of the ball.
If that’s a glimpse into why fans are annoyed at what they perceive to be Martin’s stubbornness (annoyed being an understatement), a recent exchange between him and a Leicester supporter after an EFL Trophy match at Stevenage, which has been viewed more than three million times on social media, further underlined the argument.
Fan: “I want you to succeed, don’t play the football the owners want you play, play the football we want you to play. We’re not giving you personal abuse…”
Martin: “Well, you are…”
Fan: “Yeah, but we gave (Enzo) Maresca it, we’ve given every manager…”
Martin: “We’ve had 135 shots in five games, that’s attacking football.”
Fan: “But it’s not.”
Martin: “But it is… 135 shots in five games is attacking.”
Fan: “But it’s predictable, it takes so long to get to those chances.”
Martin: “I disagree, we’re gonna disagree.”
Fan: “You are, but you’re gonna be another manager that goes, then we go around in circles again, don’t we?”
Martin: “That’s fine, I live and die by the sword. You got promoted with Enzo, by the way. You’ve been s* since then.”
Fan: “We didn’t like that football.”
Martin: “But you got promoted with 96 points (it was actually 97). What do you want?”
It is unclear if Martin knew he was being filmed at the time. The reference to Maresa certainly feels valid: the Italian, who is top of the Premier League after seven straight wins in charge of Manchester City, was booed at times during Leicester’s 2023-24 Championship promotion season, with his patient passing game causing frustration among supporters.
When The Athletic chats to people who have worked with Martin and Leicester fans who haven’t, the view is that those who work with him really like him, but those that follow the football teams he manages don’t, at least in the past couple of years. At Rangers, he was a joke figure, hounded out after 17 games and far too many draws, while at Southampton, he earned high praise from Guardiola (“I am going to learn a lot with Russell”) but couldn’t avoid the sack.
There are also far deeper problems at Leicester than the head coach, who has been given an incredibly young and inexperienced team with which to earn promotion, a fairly rare notion at that level where experience is vital.
Steve Cooper (former head coach) and Marc Albrighton (former player) have stated in recent days that there are wider issues at the club. So, yes, while humiliating home defeats against Oxford United, Peterborough United and Burton are on Martin as much as anyone, the bigger picture at Leicester, one of incompetence, dysfunction and decline, is almost as sorrowful as the 2015-16 Premier League title win was miraculous.
A former colleague of his at a previous club described Martin to The Athletic as an excellent coach, hard-working, a nice guy, down to earth, a pleasure to work with and, while he could be stubborn and had an ego, you would have to go a long way to find a head coach who wasn’t those things.
He said Martin was generally well respected across the game — having “come from nothing” after a playing career spent mainly at Wycombe Wanderers, Peterborough and Norwich City — and mentioned he runs a charity, the Russell Martin Foundation, which “works to impact positively upon the lives of children, young people and adults through football, education, health and improvement,” according to its website.
“I don’t know why I upset so many people,” Martin said recently. “One of the players asked me this week why I am so criticised outside of here, because obviously they see stuff, and I can’t answer it.
“It has become really personal from some guys in the media and definitely from fans. It is what it is, and I have to deal with it.”
His touchline demeanour perhaps doesn’t help. Against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, with Leicester in crisis mode just a point above the League One drop zone, he spends a lot of time with his hands in his pockets.
It’s a familiar, languid pose. With the loose trousers, the long-sleeved navy top over a white undershirt, the manicured beard, the expensive watch and the coiffured mane that he incessantly tucks behind his ears, Martin looks like the kind of guy who is at a bar trying to get someone’s attention for another bottle of Moet.
Russell Martin strikes a signature pose on the touchline against DoncasterPlumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images
None of this matters in the slightest, as Martin well knows, if you’re winning. But when you’re in League One, drawing with Doncaster (whose supporters sing, “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” at Martin while the score is 0-0), it adds to the impression of someone who prioritises style over substance, however unfair that might be.
And yet, there are signs here that Martin is prepared to alter his principles. For a start, he switches formation to 3-4-3 for the first time this season and, while Leicester play lovely stuff through midfield at times and incessantly pass out from the back (sometimes quite badly), they also unleash brisk counters and even some direct football.
They ride their luck, but have 54 per cent of the ball, by far their lowest for any home league game this season, and deserve their 2-1 victory, given to them via stunning strikes from John Lundstram and Kamari Doyle.
“How s* must you be, we’re winning at home,” the Leicester supporters sing. Martin avoids abuse from the home fans on this occasion and, after much hair-tucking and sleeve-rolling during a nervy finale, he appears ecstatic and relieved at full time.
As the players embark on a lap of honour for beating Doncaster, Martin doesn’t join them, staying in his technical area with his staff, eventually greeting every player heading down the tunnel with hand-slaps and hugs. There are relationships to be repaired and lots of points still to be won, but this could — could — be a reset moment.
Bromley away on Tuesday. Martin lives to fight another day.
 

“He’s probably one of the best managers I’ve worked for" says Alex McCarthy.

 

Steve Coppell, Brendan Rodgers, Brian McDermott, Eamonn Dolan, Nigel Adkins, Glenn Cockerill, Jimmy Quinn, Whoever the **** managed "Team Bath", Martin Kuhl, Terry Skiverton, Andy Scott, Simon Grayson, Paul Jewell, Harry Redknapp, Alan Pardew, Claude Puel, Mauricio Pellegrino (note, not Pellegrini), Mark Hughes, Kelvin Davis, Ralph Hasenhuttl, Ruben Selles, Nathan Jones, Simon Rusk, Ivan Juric, Will Still and Tonda Eckert.

[les-tah]

we turn the corner tonight with martins famous 5 at the back, demolition job and HMS piss the league is back! 👀👀

[Spudulike]

33 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

“He’s probably one of the best managers I’ve worked for" says Alex McCarthy.

 

Steve Coppell, Brendan Rodgers, Brian McDermott, Eamonn Dolan, Nigel Adkins, Glenn Cockerill, Jimmy Quinn, Whoever the **** managed "Team Bath", Martin Kuhl, Terry Skiverton, Andy Scott, Simon Grayson, Paul Jewell, Harry Redknapp, Alan Pardew, Claude Puel, Mauricio Pellegrino (note, not Pellegrini), Mark Hughes, Kelvin Davis, Ralph Hasenhuttl, Ruben Selles, Nathan Jones, Simon Rusk, Ivan Juric, Will Still and Tonda Eckert.

Makes you wonder what is his definition of 'best'? 

[Beachyboy]

I think our next evolution as a football club needs to be a hybrid of counter attacking and possession based. If you become known as either possession or counter attacking the opposition know that and set up accordingly. When we won the league in 2016, all those 1-0 wins towards the end of the season were due to the opposition letting us have more of the ball, defending deeper and it gave us less space to counter attack.

 

I'd like the manager to be someone more likeable and us to give that person 2 or 3 years to properly implement it. Listening to no tippy tappy football and hearing both Sam Allardyce and Karl Robinson speak, sharing their experiences, we could get either of those managers, short term we need to win football matches. Robinson spoke about going to Salford where they were 2nd bottom eventually finishing 4th and just missing out on promotion. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

1 hour ago, Spudulike said:

Makes you wonder what is his definition of 'best'? 

"Gave me the biggest contracts of my career" I should think.

[ealingfox]

It was bad enough that he did it himself but a professional writer should not have let Martin's comparison of himself to Maresca slide given they have also mentioned that Maresca is top of the league with Man City with a perfect record.

 

We were also still on course for 120 points by January in Maresca's season, if Martin was doing those numbers he would not be getting the same level of hostility.

 

The fact that a sizeable section of our fans are complete dipshits that are beyond help is a separate issue. Pretty much the same people hated Pearson, loved Rodgers long after he'd started shitting on us, hated Maresca and have been prepared to verbally and physically abuse people for protesting Top and Rudkin's generational damage.

Edited 3 hours ago by ealingfox

[RoboFox]

I don't think he gets "hate."

 

He gets stick because he gives it the big licks and doesn't get the results to back it up. His insistence on a brand of football that rarely works - as shown by his paltry FOUR wins in three years - draws the ire of fans because he's so unwavering in his insistence upon it. I'm not saying it's right, but I think it's a British cultural thing to bring people down a few pegs if their self-confidence outmatches the evidence of their ability. 

 

ANY manager would be getting the same treatment with that record at a normal football club, let alone the 6th most successful club in the country this century who are hovering above the relegation zone in League One. 

 

Frankly I don't care who his wife is and I find people giving him shit because of who he's married to very weird.