Who is Russell Martin? The bloke Rangers have just binned now after five months of utter carnage. Southampton did the same thing in December 2024. So yeah, not exactly a glowing profile right now.
But hold on, there’s slightly more to him than having been given the boot twice and dating Lucy Pinder. Let’s have a proper look.
Russell Martin Scotland Connection And Playing Days
Martin was born in Brighton, but he played for Scotland. Russell spent many years at Norwich City and captained them too. He was a competent enough defender. He’s not going to make anybody’s all-time greats list, but he got the job done. Steady, reliable, the kind of bloke you need on every squad.
Spent time at Peterborough United and a few other places during his playing career. In 2019, when he was 33 and still reasonably young for a defender, he packed it in. Most centre-halves keep going till their late 30s. He fancied management, though, and wanted to get stuck in straight away.
Russell Martin teams coached Before Everything Went Wrong
Russell Martin team coached kicked off with MK Dons in 2019. Did alright there. Had them playing decent stuff. Lots of possession. Pass it about. People started paying attention. Then Swansea came calling in 2021.
That is where he really made a name for himself. Got Swansea playing proper football. Tiki-taka-type stuff. Pass, pass, pass. Keep the ball. They didn’t take that long, but they looked dang good doing it. Southampton were impressed. Hired him in the summer of 2023.
Russell Martin Southampton salary came in around £750,000 a year, which isn’t half bad for a Championship gaffer. The Saints were in the second tier when he arrived and dropped down the season before.
The Southampton Story Started Brilliantly
Got them promoted the first time. Beat Leeds United in the play-off final. Massive result. Saints fans were buzzing. Martin was the hero. His passing game in the Championship had worked. Time to see if it’d work in the top flight.
Spoiler: it didn’t. Not even close. Southampton were unbelievably poor in the Premier League. Lost 13 out of 16 games. Five points. Bottom of the table, trailing by nine points. Painful doesn’t even cover it.
The last straw was suffering a 5-0 battering against Spurs at home in December 2024. Southampton fired him later that same day. Can’t argue with that, really. The club was heading straight back down if they didn’t do something.
Russell Martin Rangers Disaster
Russell Martin Rangers appointment happened in June 2025. New American owners at Ibrox desired an outsider. Martin had recently been sacked by Southampton, but he still had a bit of a reputation for being someone who played the game in a half-decent way. Rangers took a chance.
What a mess it turned out to be. They won one league game. Only one game in five months! Rangers fans were fuming. The football was garbage. Results were even worse. Then it got properly embarrassing.
Rangers lost 9-1 in Europe. Nine bleeding one! Among their worst-ever results in Europe. Absolute humiliation. He was let go by the board in October 2025 after just five months. Another sacking. Another disaster.
His Personal Life Got More Headlines Than His Football
Russell Martin’s wife is Jasmine Martin, who is a fitness model. They had three kids together. Martin used to refer to her in interviews as a “supermum”. It seemed like a good marriage from the outside. Then they split up in 2023.
Jasmine Martin has yet to speak publicly about the split; don’t blame her, really. Divorces are private. They had been together for years and shared three children. The split happened while Martin was at Southampton.
Then there was the Russell Martin Lucy Pinder thing. Lucy Pinder, the glamour gal from those days. You know, Nuts magazine, Loaded and all that lads’ magazine stuff. She does TV work now.
They went public with it in August 2024, posting photos together at some football do. Martin was wearing a grey suit and sunglasses. Lucy had a black dress on. They seemed proper smitten, according to the rumours. Sources said they were “besotted” with one another.
The relationship began really getting a lot of attention when Martin was named to lead the Rangers. They were talking more about his girlfriend than his football tactics. Not exactly the best kind of thing to do when you’re meant to be turning around one of Scotland’s biggest clubs.
The Tactical Dogma Problem
Here’s Martin’s big issue. He’s got one way of playing. Possession football. Pass out from the back. Build through the thirds. It’s lovely when it clicks. The trouble is, you need the right players and the right league for it.
It worked well enough in the Championship for Swansea and Southampton. Get promoted, look decent. But in the Premier League? Southampton didn’t have the players to do that with. The team continued to press high, frequently losing it in daft areas and conceding easy goals.
Martin wouldn’t budge. That’s the killer. He’s so attached to his philosophy that he refuses to adapt when it’s clear that what he believes in isn’t working. Southampton fans were screaming at him to change it. He wouldn’t. Just kept saying they had to stick to the plan.
Same story at Rangers. The Scottish Premiership was quicker and more physical than he had taken into account. His tactics didn’t work. He wouldn’t change them. Lost game after game. Got embarrassed in Europe. Sacked.
Where Does He Go From Here?
Who is Russell Martin now? A manager with two fresh sackings on his CV. That’s not brilliant, is it? Southampton was understandable given how shocking they were. Rangers make it look like a pattern, though.
He’s only 39. Still young for a manager. Could rebuild his reputation somewhere lower down the pyramid. League One, maybe. Show he can adapt his tactics. Demonstrate some flexibility. Learn from what went wrong.
Or he could just keep banging on about his way of playing and keep getting sacked. Some managers never learn. They’re so attached to their philosophy that they can’t see when it’s falling apart.
The talent’s obviously there. He got Southampton promoted. Made Swansea play good football. But talent means nothing if you’re too stubborn to adapt. The best managers work with what they’ve got. Martin hasn’t shown he can do that yet.
His relationship with Lucy Pinder is still going, apparently. They were spotted on holiday in Cornwall during his final weeks at Southampton. At least something in his life is working out while his managerial career goes down the pan.
Whether he gets another crack at management remains to be seen. Right now, who is Russell Martin? He’s a warning about what happens when you’re too stubborn tactically and can’t adapt to different challenges. Two big jobs. Two sackings. One girlfriend who’s more famous than he is. That’s where we are.
