Russell Martin, his feet fiddling with a ball, is discussing Southampton’s record-breaking run in his office overlooking the main pitch at the club’s sleek Staplewood training campus on the edge of the New Forest, a 24-game unbeaten streak underpinning their striking evolution into formidable opposition. They have not lost in 21 Championship matches and boast higher average possession than any club in Europe’s big five leagues, where Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona lead the way.
Southampton, who have won 10 home games on the bounce in all competitions, conceding only three goals, are marching under Martin. At the start of the season, when 31 players reported for training, the door to this room was rarely left alone. “Probably three-quarters of those [players] had come in at some point and told me they either wanted to leave or were expecting to leave,” says Martin, a key cog in the club rebuild last summer that included the appointments of a new director of football, Jason Wilcox, and chief executive, Phil Parsons.
