Russell Martin

[coalman]

The media in full swing telling us "what to expect". Though obviously this cuts both ways as perhaps we should be treating what we're hearing about Will Still with a similar pinch of salt. Again I would challenge whether this guy actually watched any of Russell Martin's games if he thinks it's all about playing in the top 30 yards of the pitch and that Russell Martin teams don't pass it around the back.

Edited June 5 by coalman

[SWLondon Saint]

9 minutes ago, coalman said:

 ...he thinks it's all about playing in the top 30 yards of the pitch and that Russell Martin teams don't pass it around the back.

🤣🤣🤣

[suewhistle]

1 hour ago, coalman said:

One of the Rangers board said "there's a lot to be proud of in Southampton's Premiership season"

Martin "my teams run more than any other - we do more sprints than anyone we play against"

Martin "wherever I've been the supporters have been behind me because of the relationships I've forged"

Martin "it's about courage and intensity and being able to express themselves in the final third"

Crikey, we're being gaslighted..

[Oisin]

I think Lucy Pinder will need to show courage and bravery in moving to Glasgow

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

2 minutes ago, Oisin said:

I think Lucy Pinder will need to show courage and bravery in moving to Glasgow

Indeed, downtown Southampton was probably a massive culture shock from her Winchester surrounds, Glasgow will knock her socks off!

[AlexLaw76]

“Bravery”

😂👌

[macca155]

Good job for Russell to land, a great opportunity for him to show he has learnt from his time at Southampton.

He was great for us in the Championship, his man management was desperately needed after a few miserable years.

His style didn't work in the Prem, but how much that was down to him, or the resources available, is a debatable point.

Anyway good luck to him.

[Lord Duckhunter]

12 minutes ago, macca155 said:

His style didn't work in the Prem, but how much that was down to him, or the resources available, is a debatable point.

Not debatable at all. The “style” was entirely down to him….Unless you think Janny B’s  best asset is his passing ability..

[Gloucester Saint]

Good luck to him there, genuinely. That league needs the Old Firm battling it out and Rangers actually winning it more than once a generation. It’ll be even better if Bloom’s investment in Hearts gets them competing at the top and maybe Aberdeen getting bought to build on their cup win and illustrious past.

He needs to get an Old Firm win under his belt early on. Wonder if he’ll come in for Aribo? Joe would earn more at Galatasaray but he is a favourite at Rangers, Saints won’t ask an unreasonable fee and one of our highest earners. Great way to get their fans onside.

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, Oisin said:

I think Lucy Pinder will need to show courage and bravery in moving to Glasgow

 

55 minutes ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

Indeed, downtown Southampton was probably a massive culture shock from her Winchester surrounds, Glasgow will knock her socks off!

Tbf the nice bit of Glasgow in mile better than anything ocean village has to offer. It’s a great city if you know where to go

It’s absolutely laughable people who have never left Southampton which is one of the dullest cities in Europe slag off places like Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, London etc 

Edited June 5 by Turkish

[die Mannyschaft]

Credit where due, he got us into a final at Wembley which many fans may not experience that for a long while. The 25 game unbeaten run again which may may struggle to get passed 7 or 8.

Championship to Champions league in one easy move. Can't think of any team in Scotland that's better than top 4 in Championship so it's not going to be as difficult as managing in Prem. RM will probably win title.

[Dr Who?]

He will achieve at least a top 2 finish, but a lot will hinge on Europe and getting through the qualifying. I think he will do well with his style of football with more quality and the fact it is a high level in Scotland. It’s hard to fail, but failure will be not being above Celtic. 

[Oisin]

51 minutes ago, Turkish said:

 

Tbf the nice bit of Glasgow in mile better than anything ocean village has to offer. It’s a great city if you know where to go

It’s absolutely laughable people who have never left Southampton which is one of the dullest cities in Europe slag off places like Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, London etc 

1) I’ve been to Glasgow many times; the city centre does indeed have some beautiful architecture and the shopping is far superior to most English cities. The waterfront area by the SEC is also quite nice. And the Burrell Collection is a fabulous museum

2) it was a joke

3) congratulations on surpassing MLG as todays forum bore

[Galway saint]

ultimately if the players trust the process the rest will take care of itself. 

wonder how many he will try and take with him ? Got to be a good chance Bazanu goes, fraser - possibly Edozie. Suspect Downes' wages will be too high but maybe Smallbone as well. 

[Whitey Grandad]

8 hours ago, saintant said:

Reading the Ranger's fans forum their supporters are saying Russell will need to buy a goalkeeper who is good with his feet and strengthen their defence. Surely his first move will be to come and get Bazunu and Stephens which will solve two of our problems.

Stephens in goal and Bazunu in central midfield?

[Miltonaggro]

20 hours ago, skintsaint said:

https://fb.watch/A1bgapFYhI/

Bit of a cheap setup... 😅

Is that in a Wetherspoon’s?

[Bakovnetski]

13 hours ago, Oisin said:

I think Lucy Pinder will need to show courage and bravery in moving to Glasgow

And a tolerance for Mars bars

[malcolm waldron]

8 hours ago, Galway saint said:

ultimately if the players trust the process the rest will take care of itself. 

wonder how many he will try and take with him ? Got to be a good chance Bazanu goes, fraser - possibly Edozie. Suspect Downes' wages will be too high but maybe Smallbone as well. 

Surely there's zero chance of Bazunu playing in that half of Glasgow - or have things changed now?

[goodymatt]

Martin failed miserably in the PL and showed an inability to change to give us the best chance of being competitive at that level. I do think he will do well at Rangers though, his style suits being a dominant team and his derby record in Wales was very good, first ever double double. I liked him and really wanted him to do well at Saints. Last championship season was great fun in the main, outside of the 2 bad runs. Playoffs were an experience to last a lifetime and I do wish him well at Rangers. He wasn’t ready to be a PL manager clearly but that doesn’t mean he won’t do well at Rangers.

[macca155]

13 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Not debatable at all. The “style” was entirely down to him….Unless you think Janny B’s  best asset is his passing ability..

Different opinions LD, they make the world go round. 

His style worked in the Championship as it was backed by decent finance. I didn't like it but we were promoted.

Utterly crap in the Prem, no argument. My point was that maybe he has learnt to be more adaptable. Time will tell.

[skintsaint]

59 minutes ago, malcolm waldron said:

Surely there's zero chance of Bazunu playing in that half of Glasgow - or have things changed now?

As mentioned on another thread, only 7 ROI players I think have turned out for Rangers. And some want Bazunu, Smallbone and Manning to follow Martin....nae chance.

[Midfield_General]

He's not going to have loads of money to spend, so of our players I could 100% see him coming in for Armstrong, who would probably do very well in that league. 

He will also know that Stephens is out of contract next year, so you never know. 

[goodymatt]

20 minutes ago, macca155 said:

Different opinions LD, they make the world go round. 

His style worked in the Championship as it was backed by decent finance. I didn't like it but we were promoted.

Utterly crap in the Prem, no argument. My point was that maybe he has learnt to be more adaptable. Time will tell.

He claimed in the press conference yesterday he has learned a lot from Saints PL season and will be more pragmatic when he needs to be going forward. Let’s see if that is just words because he didn’t change at all during 1 win in 16 PL games, so it’s hard to believe he will now.

[beatlesaint]

4 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

He claimed in the press conference yesterday he has learned a lot from Saints PL season and will be more pragmatic when he needs to be going forward. Let’s see if that is just words because he didn’t change at all during 1 win in 16 PL games, so it’s hard to believe he will now.

Umm, we'll see. In pretty much the same way the players defaulted to Russball last season after he'd left cos it was so ingrained in them I find it very hard to believe the master will be able to change, even if thats his intention. Words are easy 2 months away from their first match. 

[andrew7610]

Just seen him referred to by a Rangers fan angry at his appointment as 'Dick Avocado'

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, Bakovnetski said:

And a tolerance for Mars bars

Deep fried preferably.

[East Kent Saint]

How many games does he get before confirming our view of his ability ? 

[64saint]

So Russell Martin at Rangers and Ivan Juric at Atlanta are both going to be managing in the Champions League.  🤔🥱

[tdmickey3]

Rangers 'not oblivious to the noise' around Russell Martin's appointment, says CEO Patrick Stewart | Football News | Sky Sports

Worried already 🤣

Edited June 6 by tdmickey3

[Midfield_General]

38 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

Rangers 'not oblivious to the noise' around Russell Martin's appointment, says CEO Patrick Stewart | Football News | Sky Sports

Worried already 🤣

He certainly doesn’t look very happy in that photo. That is a look that says ‘this had better fucking work’ 🤣

Edited June 6 by Midfield_General

[Turkish]

20 hours ago, coalman said:

The media in full swing telling us "what to expect". Though obviously this cuts both ways as perhaps we should be treating what we're hearing about Will Still with a similar pinch of salt. Again I would challenge whether this guy actually watched any of Russell Martin's games if he thinks it's all about playing in the top 30 yards of the pitch and that Russell Martin teams don't pass it around the back.

How many goals was it we conceded from giving it away whilst doing exactly that. 12 wasn’t it or something like that 

[SWLondon Saint]

3 minutes ago, Turkish said:

How many goals was it we conceded from giving it away whilst doing exactly that. 12 wasn’t it or something like that 

Big Wuss might have fooled his new bosses that it was 12, actually it was NINETEEN f***ing goals:

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/clubs/error_lead_to_goal?se=719

[skintsaint]

1 minute ago, SWLondon Saint said:

Big Wuss might have fooled his new bosses that it was 12, actually it was NINETEEN f***ing goals:

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/clubs/error_lead_to_goal?se=719

I'm guessing at the time that was near about half our goals conceeded.

[SWLondon Saint]

Thinking about that number of number of daft goals just makes me wonder how anyone can not think he's a total fraud? Anyone in any job can make a mistake, but when you double down and say I'm gonna keep doing it again and again against all the evidence... 🤦🏻‍♂️

And there was literally no upside to his passing tactics either - it wasn't like we were pulling teams apart and scoring amazing back to front goals and having lots of shots, it was literally just doing nothing good at all.

[gurru991]

The English Premier League & the Scottish Premiership are light years apart in degree of difficulty. RM was never good enough to manage at the top level & other managers took advantage of his limited tactics. The SFA is a much lower quality & maybe his style will work for him there. The problem will be Champions League qualification & off course the Celtic games. The Rangers fans don't seem too happy with his appointment will not give much slack .... It should be very interesting !!!

[OldNick]

I saw RM said he wasnt a No1 choice at any club, well he certainly was a No 2 in my book

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, 64saint said:

So Russell Martin at Rangers and Ivan Juric at Atlanta are both going to be managing in the Champions League.  🤔🥱

The fact they've both landed decent roles tells me within the game their time here was not seen to damage them, interesting perspective,  

[coalman]

1 hour ago, SWLondon Saint said:

Big Wuss might have fooled his new bosses that it was 12, actually it was NINETEEN f***ing goals:

https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/clubs/error_lead_to_goal?se=719

Let's not forget that's goals not scoring opportunities. And we reached the previous Premier League record before Martin was sacked.

[John B]

2 hours ago, East Kent Saint said:

How many games does he get before confirming our view of his ability ? 

Zero?

[OneMrsWallace]

He's taken the easy option in terms of standard if not expectation, but then again no PL team was going to give him a job. You've got to be utterly shite as a manager to not win trophies with Celtic or Rangers. No trophies for Rangers then. 

[coalman]

40 minutes ago, gurru991 said:

The English Premier League & the Scottish Premiership are light years apart in degree of difficulty. RM was never good enough to manage at the top level & other managers took advantage of his limited tactics. The SFA is a much lower quality & maybe his style will work for him there. The problem will be Champions League qualification & off course the Celtic games. The Rangers fans don't seem too happy with his appointment will not give much slack .... It should be very interesting !!!

Other than Celtic and Europe he is going to have a big player advantage in every game he plays. Teams will sit back to try and nick a goal. There are going to be games where Rangers score hat fulls. There are also going to be games where they concede stupid goals. And oh so much aimless passing around the centre circle.

[Midfield_General]

10 minutes ago, coalman said:

Let's not forget that's goals not scoring opportunities. And we reached the previous Premier League record before Martin was sacked.

27 defensive errors leading to shots on our goal 

[Midfield_General]

6 hours ago, coalman said:

Other than Celtic and Europe he is going to have a big player advantage in every game he plays. Teams will sit back to try and nick a goal. There are going to be games where Rangers score hat fulls. There are also going to be games where they concede stupid goals. And oh so much aimless passing around the centre circle.

I was listening to some Rangers fans yesterday who were explaining the extent of the packed defences that Celtic and Rangers are faced with every week.

They said that with the exception of the Old Firm and European games, no-one will attack them and almost every other team in the league will set up to try and grind out a 0-0 or to nick something from a set-piece. But what's funny is that even if that opposition team concedes, then it's not unusual for them to literally defend a 1-0 defeat, as they still consider that a very good result from a goal difference perspective. So you get the spectacle of teams continuing to time-waste when they're a goal down. 

So all this revisionist crap about how Martin's system is so effective at unlocking a low block is going to get very thoroughly tested, because he's going to come up against a fleet of parked buses that he's going to need to break down every week they're playing someone other than Celtic. Their fans don't just expect them to win every week, they expect them to do it by an acceptable number of goals, the way they remember them doing when they dominated Scottish football and won 9 league titles on the bounce. It's a very different type of pressure. 

The media love-in has got them expecting fast, aggressive, free-flowing, attacking football. I think they're in for a bit of a shock. 

Edited June 6 by Midfield_General

[Miltonaggro]

36 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

I was listening to some Rangers fans yesterday who were explaining the extent of the packed defences that Celtic and Rangers are faced with every week.

They said that with the exception of the Old Firm and European games, no-one will attack them and almost every other team in the league will set up to try and grind out a 0-0 or to nick something from a set-piece. But what's funny is that even if that opposition team concedes, then it's not unusual for them to literally defend a 1-0 defeat, as they still consider that a very good result from a goal difference perspective. So you get the spectacle of teams continuing to time-waste when they're a goal down. 

So all this revisionist crap about how Martin's system is so effective at unlocking a low block is going to get very thoroughly tested, because he's going to come up against a fleet of buses parked behind the garage that he's going to need to break down every week they're playing someone other than Celtic. Their fans don't just expect them to win every week, they expect them to do it by an acceptable number of goals, the way they remember them doing when they dominated Scottish football and won 9 league titles on the bounce. It's a very different type of pressure. 

The media love-in has got them expecting fast, aggressive, free-flowing, attacking football. I think they're in for a bit of a shock. 

Well said. It's going to be a very interesting watch from a distance for Saints fans, certainly adds another dimension to next season at least.  I've seen a fair bit of top flight football in Portugal over the last decade and it's a very similar set up to the Scottish Prem in terms of hierarchy, expectations,  approach, and quality of players / managers.  Texted an old pal who is Rangers yesterday and he reckons a respectable minimum target for Martin this season would be getting the points gap with Celtic down to around six points (last season it was 17) and a cup win or good go in Europe.  That likely gets him a second season.  I actually think the biggest issue will be his personality, as if he gets defensive and narky if the fans start giving his players or tactics some stick, he will be toast very quickly.   

[Midfield_General]

11 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said:

Well said. It's going to be a very interesting watch from a distance for Saints fans, certainly adds another dimension to next season at least.  I've seen a fair bit of top flight football in Portugal over the last decade and it's a very similar set up to the Scottish Prem in terms of hierarchy, expectations,  approach, and quality of players / managers.  Texted an old pal who is Rangers yesterday and he reckons a respectable minimum target for Martin this season would be getting the points gap with Celtic down to around six points (last season it was 17) and a cup win or good go in Europe.  That likely gets him a second season.  I actually think the biggest issue will be his personality, as if he gets defensive and narky if the fans start giving his players or tactics some stick, he will be toast very quickly.   

Yep. Said it before, but the first few months of his tenure are going to be critical. If they do well in the CL qualifiers and/or the first Old Firm game, he'll be off and running. But if they bomb in those games and/or gift stupid goals, then he will be under a hell of a lot of pressure very quickly, and then he needs to show he can cope with that pressure better than he did here where the mask slipped and he reacted badly when he was asked fair and valid questions about the suitability of his approach etc.

By all accounts the squad he's inherited is not great, and is certainly not a natural fit for his playing-out style - Butland and the CBs are no good with the ball at their feet, Tavernier the club captain is in decline and not very mobile, etc. He's only got six weeks to get them ready for their first CL game, during which he will presumably want to play 'his way'. I couldn't really care less whether he succeeds or not, but you're right that it's going to be very interesting to watch it play out. 

Edited June 6 by Midfield_General

[BarberSaint]

5 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said:

Well said. It's going to be a very interesting watch from a distance for Saints fans, certainly adds another dimension to next season at least.  I've seen a fair bit of top flight football in Portugal over the last decade and it's a very similar set up to the Scottish Prem in terms of hierarchy, expectations,  approach, and quality of players / managers.  Texted an old pal who is Rangers yesterday and he reckons a respectable minimum target for Martin this season would be getting the points gap with Celtic down to around six points (last season it was 17) and a cup win or good go in Europe.  That likely gets him a second season.  I actually think the biggest issue will be his personality, as if he gets defensive and narky if the fans start giving his players or tactics some stick, he will be toast very quickly.   

 

Very thin skin and quick and frequent and blunt criticism. Wonder how that'll go. 3 games is what he has before they turn? Their forums already show they don't like pass it around at the back and do nothing football and guess what ...

[coalman]

So, hang on. Nobody could've done any better with the players he had but he's left a legacy of squad building that Saints must maintain? What. The. Actual. Fuck? This is what happens when you let ChatGPT write your clickbait articles.

https://saintsmarching.com/russell-martin-makes-controversial-claim-which-is-partially-correct

In hindsight, Southampton's Martin appointment was a masterstroke move considering the youth focused approach the club implements. Though the end could've been much better instead of a ton of Premier League humiliations, Martin has left a legacy in terms of squad building and talent scouting which the Saints must strive to keep intact.

[Miltonaggro]

10 minutes ago, coalman said:

So, hang on. Nobody could've done any better with the players he had but he's left a legacy of squad building that Saints must maintain? What. The. Actual. Fuck? This is what happens when you let ChatGPT write your clickbait articles.

https://saintsmarching.com/russell-martin-makes-controversial-claim-which-is-partially-correct

In hindsight, Southampton's Martin appointment was a masterstroke move considering the youth focused approach the club implements. Though the end could've been much better instead of a ton of Premier League humiliations, Martin has left a legacy in terms of squad building and talent scouting which the Saints must strive to keep intact.

Fucking hell!  When he's sacked a glittering career in fantasy writing beckons!

[coalman]

1 minute ago, Miltonaggro said:

Fucking hell!  When he's sacked a glittering career in fantasy writing beckons!

I suspect he'll find somewhere else to bravely play dominant front foot football in the top 3rd of the pitch with unmatched intensity and form yet more unbreakable bonds with the supporters of another club.

[Miltonaggro]

2 minutes ago, coalman said:

I suspect he'll find somewhere else to bravely play dominant front foot football in the top 3rd of the pitch with unmatched intensity and form yet more unbreakable bonds with the supporters of another club.

MK Dons.  Back to the Future IV...