Russell Martin Expected To Be Appointed Southampton Manager Within Hours

After the announcement at lunchtime today that Ruben Selles will not be manager of Southampton FC next season, the media are reporting that the club have agreed terms with Swansea City manager Russell Martin and an announcement is imminent.

Whoever has been linking the new that Saints are going to appoint Russell Martin as their 4th manager within 7 months has been a busy bee over the past week.

Now with the news that Ruben Selles is going to be leaving the club after the game against Liverpool on Sunday, comes further media speculation that Russell Martin and his current club Swansea City have agreed the terms of the deal and that it could be announced within hours.

This is bad from a Southampton perspective, we could go into the Liverpool with not just one manager at the club but two and that would cause much mirth in the footballing world in general.

Surely it would have been better to stand Selles down before announcing him as the manager, Martin is said to be about to sign a 3 year contract at St Mary's and as some media outlets speculate, be unveiled within hours.

This would be bizarre, if Martin is announced then I truly hope that Ruben Selles is given the dignity of being allowed to step down from Sunday's game against Liverpool

I also hope that Martin doesn't take charge and they leave it in the hands of the current coaching staff rather than unveil Martin to the fans on Sunday.

He will not receive a saviour's welcome, his track record in football is not good enough to excite the fans who will see it at best as a left field appointment and at worst the pessimists will have a field day and use this as a stick to beat the club with claiming that it is yet another cheap and badly thought out appointment.

The truth is probably somewhere in between, I fear the club is too far down the line now to delay this announcement, whatever side of the fence you sit on regarding Sport Republic, they do not seem to show themselves as people that think carefully about what they are doing and the ramifications of that.

Sunday against Liverpool will be a fraught day for Saints fans, it will not be the day for a lap of appreciation from the squad, nor will it be the day for supporters to show that they are not enamoured with the new manager before he has even got his foot in the door.

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