It was always going to be a struggle to keep Southampton in the Premier League, even before their poor transfer window.
The departure of technical director Jason Wilcox, a big advocate of former Scotland international Martin, to Manchester United last year left the former head coach without a crucial ally and vital support.
Southampton returned to the Premier League without sufficiently replacing Wilcox, which left them without a key position and experience.
There was frustration with the ownership as chief executive Phil Parsons – who joined from Dyson in July 2023 – had limited experience in the game and the club struggled to move quickly enough to get deals done last summer.
The target for the season was to avoid relegation and build the team’s value, something they have done with the emergence of Tyler Dibling – even if their reported £100m valuation is unlikely to be achieved.
Martin had a patient-passing, possession-based style of play – something he had implemented since becoming MK Dons manager in 2019 and continued at Swansea.
It was something that appealed to Southampton and why they were so determined to take him from the Swans after relegation in 2023, a move that turned acrimonious when Swansea took Martin to court.
“Every team we’ve had has looked similar but we’ve had to find a different way,” he said after losing to Wolves in November.
“At MK Dons we had two strong, powerful centre-forwards so played two strikers and found a way to score goals. At Swansea we didn’t have any wingers so we had to play defenders or midfielders.
“Last season we had so much attacking power for the Championship we scored a lot of goals.
“Now the guys are doing what we were told we couldn’t in terms of having so much of the ball in the Premier League, but there has to be the same mentality there was last year.
“Whichever style of play you have, the game is about beating your opponent and dominating your opponent, and we don’t do that quite enough yet.”
The style criticisms came as the Saints struggled and the toxic atmosphere at St Mary’s during the final weeks – including as Tottenham scored four goals in 25 minutes in Martin’s final game – made the situation untenable.
Mistakes happened too often. The tone was set by goalkeeper Alex McCarthy’s error to gift Joelinton the winner in Newcastle’s 1-0 opening day victory in August – and it is perhaps naive to think Southampton would have survived this season.
But had Martin ridden out the storm – difficult in a football culture that demands everything yesterday – perhaps he would have been the best person to mount a promotion challenge.
It may have come down to how psychologically scarred the squad and club were from relegation, and it is a fanciful suggestion but the pedigree was there.
