It is hard to envisage many Premier League managers replying to letters from fans and just because Russell Martin belongs to that select group after masterminding promotion in his first season at Southampton, it is not a something he plans to renege on any time soon. “The supporters are the most important people at any club, because they’ll always outlast everyone else,” he says.
“You get given a club when you’re a little child, it becomes your tribe and it rarely changes unless you’re a glory-hunter like some of my Brighton fan mates … I didn’t see them when they were at Priestfield, playing at Gillingham. So if supporters have an opinion and they take the time to write to me, then I probably should take the time to write back, sometimes in a day, sometimes in a few weeks depending on the schedule. But I always try. I think it’s important.”
There was a flurry of post last September when a fourth successive defeat, at Middlesbrough, saw them drop to 15th in the Championship. “Some of them we had a chuckle at, some of them were really interesting and had a point. Someone said: ‘It’s too many passes, we don’t have enough purpose, we’re not creating enough.’ And, at that point, they were right. But we ended up scoring the third-most goals in the league. I kept saying it would be a process. But without the first bit and the middle bit, the last bit doesn’t come. You can’t skip those steps.”
Anxiety was replaced by ecstasy and delirium after promotion via Wembley in May. The letters – some constructive, some not so much – are stowed in a drawer in his office at Southampton’s Staplewood training base, where the glistening playoff final trophy has pride of place in reception, and above his desk is a quote from Pep Guardiola, which reads: “When we win, the game model seems good and is not questioned. But bear in mind, we won’t always win. Then doubts will come. That is the moment when we will have to trust the model more than ever because the temptation to move away from it will be very strong.”
Martin has felt those jarring magnetic forces for a while. He took his first steps into management at MK Dons, aged 33, with the club in the League One relegation zone and on a nine-match winless run. Then came more pain. “I lost the first four games and it was like: ‘OK, can we actually do this?’ It would have been so easy at that point to say: ‘OK, let’s strip it back.’ I definitely don’t think I’d be sat here now if I had gone away from it. Pete [Winkelman, the then MK Dons chairman] said he was going to be patient and he stuck to his word. Now we are on the biggest stage and under the biggest spotlight, nothing really changes with our work on the grass, the day to day. It will just be the intensity of the games, the intensity of the noise and all the stuff that comes with it.”
He is braced. One of his four brothers, Jamie, has sent him the gloomy predictions and “first manager to be sacked” polls. “We’ve made the players aware of it, in the same way we did last September,” he says of his team being written off. “We’re not going to shy away from anything. We have a choice: go with that or use it as a fuel to fight against it. I don’t set out to prove anyone or anything wrong. I set out to prove ourselves right and I think it is a very different mentality. We are working towards something, not away from something. We are working towards being better all the time, improving, growing, learning, rather than just: ‘We have to stay up, that’s it.’ If we work towards all that, I believe it gives us the best chance to achieve what we want to achieve.”
Perhaps Martin’s biggest strength is how comfortable he is in his own skin, though he concedes he is not so relaxed at the idea of inevitably ceding control of the ball when Guardiola and co come to town. Last season Southampton averaged 65.5% possession, eclipsing Manchester City to record the highest figure across the top four tiers. How unbearable is it on the touchline watching another team dominate the ball? “I don’t enjoy it all. I didn’t enjoy the playoff final as a performance, not one bit. But we had to win, it was a one-off game.
“We have to try to avoid hanging on and defending for long periods. We also have to accept there are going to be times when we have to defend and spend a bit less time on the ball than we would like. When we have it: ‘Guys, let’s try to hurt the opposition and maintain territory as much as we can,’ and in the Premier League that is going to be really important. I’m looking forward to it and seeing how it pans out. And how comfortable I can become … but I’ll never be that comfortable not having most of the ball. I know that.”
What goes through his head in those moments? “‘How can we steal the ball? Where can we trap them? How can we get it back?’ There are some amazing coaches whose teams are built on playing low and counterattacking because it suits the individuals they have. It doesn’t suit my personality and the players we have. We have to avoid that as much as we can. It will be about adapting and tweaking while maintaining who we want to be.”
The biggest thing for Southampton, he says, pertains to bravery. “It’s a psychological game. But life is. Most of the problems we create are in here,” he says, tapping his temple. “We will have a problem when someone doesn’t want the ball or they hide a bit, because that’s not a good intention. I say it to my kids all the time: even if you make a mistake but the intent was good, it was a positive intention, you wanted to do something good. Despite what’s going on in the crowd, despite who they’re playing against, whether it’s a superstar or someone physically outstanding, their intention has to be the same.”
Martin, who signed a new three-year contract until 2027 in July, is confident his players will relish the step up, starting against Newcastle at St James’ Park on Saturday. “I always say to the players: how they do anything is how they do everything. When no one is looking in the gym are you going to do one less rep? I remember last season watching an under-18 player cut a corner during a run. It is madness. It’s not a good intent. It’s disrespectful to your teammates.”
Southampton have signed nine players this summer, with Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Flynn Downes signing permanently after excelling on loan, while Chelsea’s Lesley Ugochukwu is poised to arrive on loan to take the incomings into double figures. Another to return is the former captain Adam Lallana, who first joined the club aged 12. Lallana, 36, left for Liverpool a decade ago and has spent the past four seasons at Brighton. “He’s great in meetings because he’s vocal and we have quite a quiet group,” Martin says of Lallana, whose eldest son, Arthur, is in the Southampton academy, heading into the under-12s alongside Tony Pulis’s grandson, Luca.
Despite the external forecasts, Martin radiates excitement. “We will do things in our own way,” says the 38-year-old, who spent four seasons in the Premier League with Norwich, whom he captained. “Maybe some people will really like it and find it exciting or different or refreshing. Some people will hate it and say: ‘Why are they passing that close to their own goal?’ Of course, results keep me in a job but I’ve been happier with a performance when losing than I have sometimes when we have won, playing really poorly, and I always make that really clear to the players. Winning ugly every now and then is fine, but you don’t get away with it for long.”
As for those letters from supporters, which ones stick in the memory? “Probably the most abusive ones, telling me my style of play is boring, the players can’t do it, it’s a disgrace losing four games in a row in the Championship … which is probably right for this club,” he says, a smile etched across his face. “At some point it would be interesting to sit down with that person and see what they thought at the end of the season. Maybe their view didn’t change even though we got promoted. Or maybe they’re waiting to send me the same letter this season. We’ll see.”
