Russell Martin was basking in the glow of defeat, not victory. It may say something for his experience of Premier League football that the high point arguably still came in a loss. But his Southampton side had gone to Manchester City, had 43 percent of possession and only lost 1-0. Martin had been praised by both Pep Guardiola and Phil Foden. Since then, he has taken as many points as Guardiola. He was not to know his 1-0 loss would look less admirable when City only won one of their next 11 games.
But he was able to hold court. “I have seen so many teams promoted and get nowhere,” he said. Southampton had got somewhere when Martin’s reign was curtailed on Sunday night: 20th in the Premier League, nine points from safety, their return ticket to the Championship booked. At their rate of progress – if that is the word – they should just beat Derby’s divisional record low of 11 points; though the numbers only put them on course for 11.875.
“We have to believe in something,” Martin added that October day. “We have to be extreme and take the ball in places people would not usually enjoy taking it.” The temptation is to think that plenty of other teams enjoyed Southampton taking the ball in their own final third. They became a parody of themselves, conceding goals by gifting the ball to many an opponent. The tone for their season was set on the opening day, when they had 77 percent of possession against Newcastle and goalkeeper Alex McCarthy passed to Alexander Isak, who set up Joelinton for the lone goal. None of the three goalkeepers used this season – McCarthy, Aaron Ramsdale and Joe Lumley – is particularly assured with the ball at his feet. Each was told to pass out from the back. When Martin was dismissed, Southampton were the runaway leaders in the chart for most errors leading to shots, with 26. They had made 10 that brought goals – in official statistics; many another mistake indirectly caused them – putting them en route to set another record.
They ranked eighth form possession but risk going down as one of the worst-ever Premier League sides. They paraded Martin’s principles. The verdict from St Mary’s on Sunday was brief and blunt. “Russell Martin, your football is s**t,” came one of the choruses. At times, it was idiocy masquerading as ideology, a self-defeating brand of stupidity.
An argument sometimes made in Martin’s defence is that the players were not good enough to implement his style of play. And the obvious response is to play a different way – and the pragmatists Martin seemingly disparaged by claiming they got nowhere claimed more points with a more realistic attitude – it is also tempting to wonder if the manager was not a good enough coach to coax his players into passing to people in the same-coloured shirt.
Either way, it reflects a failure of decision-making. There have been plenty. Martin bowed out after a game against Tottenham when he switched to a midfield diamond and had to abandon it after 15 minutes, making a tactical substitution when already 3-0 down. He picked midfielder Flynn Downes as a centre-back against Liverpool and he passed the ball to Dominik Szoboszlai for the opener. His penalty taker against Manchester United was Cameron Archer, who had never scored a spot kick in his career, and not Ben Brereton Diaz, who had never missed one. Archer duly failed from the spot at 0-0 and Saints lost 3-0. Martin’s chosen captain was Jack Stephens, who was sent off for an awful lunge at Alejandro Garnacho, collected a further two-match suspension for calling the fourth official a “c***”, returned and was red-carded in the 5-1 hammering by Chelsea for pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair. A Championship-standard defender, Stephens will be banned for nine games by Christmas.
Bad choices were compounded by a lack of competence. Southampton conceded the second most goals; only Wolves let in more at set-pieces. They ranked eighth for possession but that proved meaningless as an extreme experiment produced a near certainty of relegation. There were comparisons with Vincent Kompany’s Burnley, those other masters of creating chances for their opponents. Martin’s Southampton ignored the evidence of the destination and went further down the same path.
They could plead misfortune with late goals and decisions but a return of five points from 16 games gives Martin the joint lowest points-per-game average of anyone to manage at least 10 Premier League matches, along with Terry Connor. Even Jan Siewert, with five from 15, fared slightly better. But Connor and Siewert were put at the helm of sinking ships mid-voyage. Martin charted the course from the start.
And, when their summer spending came to £100m, this is an expensive brand of failure; still not as expensive as their demotion in 2022-23 but costly enough that Martin is very culpable. He at least earned some of that money: Southampton would have been in a huge hole financially had they not gone up and they can savour memories of both the play-off final win over Leeds and a 25-game unbeaten run.
Yet Martin’s overall record invites scepticism. It is harsh to say he has failed upwards, but he has been given bigger jobs on the basis of style, not substance. He finished 19th and 13th in League One with MK Dons, 15th and 10th in the Championship with Swansea. Southampton had one of the three biggest budgets and best squads in the Championship last season and came fourth. Now their group of players might be superior to Ipswich’s, but they are seven points behind Kieran McKenna’s savvier team.
The Burnley parallels prompted the witticism that Martin’s reward for relegation could be to get the Bayern Munich job. But if he has been exposed by the Premier League, Southampton face a task to persuade someone to oversee their last 22 games in it before the Championship beckons. Their plight is such that many a high-calibre candidate may pass on the opportunity. And not knowing when and where to pass proved the root of Russell Martin’s problems.