Russell Martin ‘three games from Southampton sack’
Southampton boss Russell Martin has just three games to save his job after their winless start to life back in the Premier League.
Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, former England international goalkeeper Paul Robinson believes Southampton’s games against fellow strugglers Leicester City and Everton will prove pivotal if Martin, 38, wants to keep his job.
The South Coast club are winless after their first seven Premier League game, sitting above Wolves in 19th by virtue of goal difference.
Russell Martin fighting for his job at Southampton
The Scottish manager has drawn ire from the Southampton board for his insistence in sticking with the free-flowing football that served him so well in the Championship last season.
With just five goals from their opening seven Premier League games, Martin’s side are the lowest-scoring in the league and he is fighting for his job.
“I think he’s got three games”, Robinson told Football Insider.
“They play Leicester after the international break, then it’s Man City away.
“They’re not going to put a new manager in charge of the team for Man City away because that’s not a season-defining game for them. After Man City away, they play Everton at home.
“I think after the Everton fixture, that will be the one.
“If he loses against Leicester, and obviously the Manchester City result goes as expected, he may go after the Man City game and then might give a new manager the Everton game.
“Or, depending on their thinking, if they get well beaten by Leicester and City, they might give him the Everton game to see how he gets on, if they don’t get anything from that, that could be his last.
“I think it’s a really crucial two weeks for him because the two fixtures at home against Leicester and Everton, they’re the ones he’s got to pick up points.
“And then the board have got a decision to make.
“If they are actually thinking of sacking him, why would you put a new manager in charge to take a team to Manchester City? Wait till next week.”
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