Southampton boss Russell Martin: 'We're being written off after six games and I don't like it'
WALLY MEETS: The odds are stacked against Russell Martin and Southampton staying up - but the Saints boss does not appreciate the vultures circling so soon, even if their next fixture looks daunting
by Mike Walters · The MirrorAaron Ramsdale probably won’t be hanging a hammock between the goalposts on his return to Arsenal.
The Gunners peppered promoted Leicester with 36 goal attempts last weekend, and there may be a few more shots heading the £25 million keeper’s way when struggling Southampton visit the Emirates. Ramsdale has gone from title contender with the Gunners to Saints’ relegation battle, conceding 10 goals in his first four games at St Mary’s.
But Southampton boss Russell Martin is convinced he has landed a gem, even if Ramsdale may need a siege of Rorke’s Drift heroics to survive at his old stamping ground, where he is assured of a warm reception.
“The plan has always been to give our keeper optimum protection and he deserves a lot of credit for what he’s done since he came in,” said Martin. “We’ve conceded too many goals but I’m not sure he could have done much about any of them.
“He’s done some brilliant things, he’s been calm, he’s brought bravery on the ball, he’s made some brilliant saves and I can see how excited he is about going back to Arsenal. The guys will have to help him as much as they possibly can and in return he’ll help them out as much as he possibly can.
“I’m looking forward to it - he’s been a brilliant signing for this club and I think he will be even more important for us as the season goes on. He will be huge in our way of doing things.”
Six games into the season, in the bookies’ running commentary known odiously as the sack race, Martin is already second favourite - behind Erik ten Hag - to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job. It is a ghoulish form of speculation loaded against newly-promoted bosses who are expected to turn daisy chains into diamond necklaces.
In the last 20 years, 10 clubs promoted through the play-offs like Saints have come straight back down again and two others have lasted only two seasons in the top flight. The odds are stacked against Martin, who remains admirably bullish after the first-half collapse at Bournemouth last Monday hurt him like a punch in the guts.
“It’s always going to be difficult for teams promoted via any format - automatic or through the play-offs - but I feel like we’re being written off after six games and I don’t like that at all, I don’t enjoy that,” he said. “We’ll see how long we last in the Premier League as a club and we’ll see how long I last in the Premier League.
“t’s not a level playing field so let’s not pretend that it ever will be, but would I swap that experience of getting promoted at Wembley? No, I wouldn’t - I think the play-offs are great, especially when you win them. They are exciting, it adds to the competition and you have to plan for being in both the Premier League and the Championship, which is a bit more work but it doesn’t impact what we have to spend.
“It maybe just gives you a bit less time to crack on and get on with it, but the first three or four weeks of the window is nonsense anyway - people just play around, stroking their egos and nothing really gets done. While we were in the play-offs, everyone else was on holiday in Las Vegas, Dubai or wherever they go these days.
“We are only six games in and it can all change so quickly, but we have to go into the international break feeling much better about ourselves than we did on Monday night.”
Southampton’s predicament may get worse before it gets better. They have only won at Arsenal twice in their history, Danny Wallace supplying the winner at Highbury 37 years ago the last time it happened. But their last trip to the Emirates was a madcap 3-3 draw, when Ramsdale’s error led to Carlos Alcaraz opening the scoring for Saints after 28 seconds.
It was the second time that season when Ramsdale conceded in the opening minute, which hardened Gunners messiah Mikel Arteta ’s conviction to go after David Raya to compete for Arsenal’s No.1 jersey.
Whatever happens this weekend, Martin will not be sacrificing his principles or resorting hopeful punts down the channels.
Vincent Kompany refused to surrender his philosophy on the altar of Premier League survival at Burnley last season - the Clarets went down, but Kompany landed on his feet at Bayern Munich. That is not to say Southampton will be relegated and Martin will walk into a job at Real Madrid, but he warned: “Am I going to stick to my principles? Yes.
“I’ve played many other ways as a player and I could coach in a different way if I wanted - but I don’t believe in it so I won’t be able to convince the lads to believe in it, either.”
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