Russell Martin will take four members of his back room staff with him when the protracted negotiations for him to leave Swansea City are officially announced. It was two weeks ago today that Martin learned Southampton wanted to speak with him, this caused him to delay a planned trip to the USA.
When Russell Martin received news of the Saints being interested in him the majority ownership requested some form of commitment to Martin attending a pre planned meeting in Washington DC. This was to formalise plans for the Swans recruitment for next season. Upon learning Southampton wanted him Martin delayed the trip and due to this the Swansea City ownership cancelled it. On one hand you cannot blame Martin for wanting to speak to a club who would offer him a huge salary and a budget he has never had experience of before. Added to that the bad feeling between him and the club since March meant he felt unsupported and felt the rug could well be pulled from under him again in the summer. On the other, Swansea City’s ownership are stating they had excess funds to satisfy Martin’s players incoming targets, and had big hopes for next season.
Either way the staff leaving are : keeper coach Dean Thornton, physical performance coach Matt Willmott, performance analyst Ben Parker and assistant manager Matt Gill. All four are close allies of Martin and additional compensation as we reported at the start of this will be around £750,000.
This means any new manager appointment will also include a complete review of the Swans strategic plans behind the scenes over the coming weeks. We understand that the bookies favourites have not been contacted by the Swansea majority ownership. The current negotiations for a more profiled manager have taken place but only tentatively, and the club are learning quickly that it’s all about money. Not only for a profile manager, his staff and player budget but the time it takes to manage this situation.
Swansea City had no real notice of Southampton’s approach until the day it all came crashing down two weeks ago. Plans for next season were in place and a positive end to last season meant encouragement for the next. It wasn’t meant to be.
We expect certain players to follow Russell Martin to St Mary’s as we have reported already in recent times. However, it’s going to take more than this week for the Swans to be ready to face the new season as the search for a new manager continues.