Leicester are close to appointing Russell Martin, with BBC Sport reporting that he is nearing the job rather than already in it. The appeal is obvious. He took Southampton into the Premier League by winning the Championship play-offs in 2023-24, but his 17-game spell at Rangers, which ended with them eighth in the Scottish Premiership, is the warning Leicester have to weigh up. The club also need a reset after relegation and another managerial change.
Why Leicester are looking at Martin
The case for Martin starts with Southampton. He delivered promotion in 2023-24 and that remains the strongest part of his CV. For a club that has been through constant change, that matters. Leicester would be his seventh manager in just over three years since Brendan Rogers left in April 2023, a run that says more about instability than ambition.
The numbers around Leicester also point to a side still trying to settle. Their last five results are WDLDW, a sequence that includes wins over Southampton and Ipswich, a draw at Nottingham Forest, and defeats to Bournemouth and Cheltenham. They have scored 6 goals in those five games and conceded 4. That is not a team screaming crisis, but it is also not a side that looks settled enough to ignore the value of a clear managerial reset.
The Rangers spell is the warning sign
Martin's Rangers stint is the obvious concern. It lasted only 17 games, and he was sacked when Rangers were eighth in the Scottish Premiership. That is hard to brush aside, especially for a club trying to avoid another false start.
Rangers have not exactly steadied since he left either. Their last five results are LLLWL, a run that underlines how messy that period has been for everyone involved. Leicester, meanwhile, have been docked 6 points for breaching English Football League financial rules, so the margin for error around this appointment is not generous.
That is why this looks like a sensible but risky move. Martin has already shown he can build a promotion-winning side, and Leicester need somebody who can bring some order to a club that has had too many resets. The Rangers spell means the caution is real, but the Southampton promotion is the stronger evidence. If Leicester do go through with it, they are betting on the version of Martin that got Southampton out of the Championship, not the one who lasted 17 games at Rangers.
Compiled by the ClutchBrief Desk with AI assistance, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →