Interesting article in the
i on the man most of us seem to hate
https://app.inews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/498/2024/05/pugpig_pdfpages/20240516_inews_inational_053_spt.jpgMartin has built a foundation for Saints to rise once more
Charity work and a promotion fight fuels young boss, writes Oliver Young Myles
Plotting Southampton's escape from the Championship may be Russell Martin's immediate focus, but the charitable foundation bearing his name that was established seven years ago is never far from his thoughts.
Initially, the aims of the Russell Martin Foundation were relatively modest: provide high quality foot ball coaching to young children in East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove, where the 38-year-old grew up. What began with a dozen kids kicking footballs around has morphed into something much bigger. The foundation's various projects, which encompass education and health as well as football, now provides support to thousands of people in those communities. It employs over 70 people and is comparable in size to the charitable arms of some Championship football clubs.
It's a passion project for the Saints boss who has frequently spoken up about issues that impact wider society, ranging from climate change to Brexit to domestic abuse. Martin witnessed violent behaviour from his father towards his mother as a child. "It started off by trying to provide opportunities to people just through football as the vehicle and now that's spread out to providing opportunities for so many kids through so many avenues," Martin tells i. "But I don't think the core values have ever changed. It's about making people feel like they belong and trying to improve young people's lives through the game that we love."
The Extra Time Project is one of the foundation's most recent initiatives and offers an alternative education provision to young people who have struggled in mainstream schooling, many of whom have suffered forms of abuse, violence and poverty. During this academic year, the project has supported more than 300 vulnerable young people so far with the vast majority returning to schools with significant improvement in school attendance and their own wellbeing.
"It's opened everyone's eyes really that actually there's a lot of deprivation on our doorstep, way more than we thought it was," he says. "Brighton and Hove is deemed as this nice, middle-class, affluent area, but actually in and around it there are a lot of people who need a lot of help and there are areas that have been forgotten about. You don't need to be defined by your circumstances or environment all the time," he adds. "It is so difficult for young people to understand that unless they have people along the way who can open their eyes.
"If they come from a family of abuse, trauma, violence, poverty - I had to endure some of that as a kid myself and if it wasn't for a few really important people along the way, Alan (Sanders, the foundation's director and a former youth coach of Martin's) being one of them - then you don't really have your eyes opened. You think this is it."
The foundation has maintained its footballing roots, though, and offers FA accredited coaching and access to high-level facilities to people of all abilities from all walks of life.
The foundation has maintained its footballing roots, though, and offers FA accredited coaching and access to high-level facilities to people of all abilities from all walks of life
There are weekly football courses for girls, organised training and matches for people with disabilities and walking football for over 50s. There is also an education programme for adolescents aged 16-19 who have slipped through the cracks at professional clubs. While the academy has acted for children and teenagers to join some of the biggest clubs in the country, the prevailing ethos is "personal progression" over "results driven" goals. Since joining Southampton last summer, Martin has sought to instill a positive mindset in a squad that had "lost a lot of joy for the game" after suffering relegation from the Premier League the previous season. The Saints finished fourth in the Championship and have a chance of securing an immediate return to the top-flight via the play-offs. They are favourites to reach the final when they host West Bromwich Albion tomorrow after drawing 0-0 in their semi-final first leg at the Hawthorns.
"A lot of players were thinking that they would go or were wanting to leave. A lot of staff were fearing for their jobs. So you walk in and you feel that energy straight away.
"When you walk in as the guy who has to steer the ship around, it's a bit like ok this is going to be a bigger challenge than maybe we thought'". As well as transforming the mood, Martin sought to transform the team's playing style too, moving them towards a more patient, possession based approach after years of playing a high energy pressing game without the ball under Ralph Hasenhuttl.
It's a philosophy that has been synonymous with Martin throughout his managerial career so far across stints with MK Dons in Leagues One and Two and Swansea City and Southampton in the Championship. His teams play in a style that he "would love to have played in".
Southampton's emphasis on methodical ball retention hasn't been to everyone's tastes. Martin, like similarly progressive coaches, has faced criticism for being too wedded to his approach and lacking flexibility. "I think managers get celebrated when they win, as Vincent [Kompany] did last year when Burnley were brilliant and the best team [in the Championship] by miles and as Ange [Postecoglou] did when he first went to Spurs and the results were really good," he says.
"Then the first time there is difficulty or you lose it's always 'they have to adapt'. I watched Burnley last year and they adapted in every single game without losing the concept of what Vincent wanted. I watched [Postecoglou's] Celtic a lot in the Champions League and they had some really brilliant games, same at Spurs.
"People talk about risk. The risk for me is only having 30 per cent of the ball and trying to do something with it and defending really close to your own goal. What's a bigger risk for me?"
Regardless of which division Southampton are in next season, Martin is confident that "amazing foundations" are in place for the club to build on. He's proud that the same can be said for his charitable organisation.
