Southampton defender James Bree has been speaking to the media about his love for Russell Martin and his hope that the manager will stick around, but is he just trying to get back in Martin's good books after blatantly ignoring his tactical instructions.
James Bree has told The Daily Echo that the Southampton squad love Russell Martin and that they all want him to stick around
"I think every win is good for the gaffer" Said Bree
"We all love him in there. We want him to stick around because he does so much good stuff for us.
"We all love him for what he did for us last year, the way we play and how he is as a person. Hopefully, we can get a win for him on the weekend and settle all that down a little bit.
"It’s massive for the boys. I think we’ve got a really, really good group. We’re all very tight and close and good mates. We do try and stay as positive as possible.”
However after this piece of massive toadying up to the manager, it is being claimed that this is nothing more than a ploy to get himself back into Martin's good books after Bree blatantly ignored the manager's instructions in the final minutes of the game against Stoke City on Tuesday evening.
Those watching the game where in no doubt that Saints were playing to the manager's orders to the letter, the tactic was to keep passing the ball and passing it again until eventually it would get to an unmarked Saints player in the six yard box.
It was all going well until the 88th minute when James Bree suddenly ignored his manager's instruction completely, the ball fell to him 25 yards out and he had plenty of options on to pass it sideways or even backwards,, so there was no excuse to launch a speculative effort from that distance.
Saints had plenty of players in and around the box who were waiting patiently for another 25 passes to be completed before an aimless cross into the box, it was only a matter of time before that happened, there was just no need for Bree to press the panic button and shoot.
But hours of practice on the training ground was suddenly wasted, as James Bree went completely off piste and let fly.
If Russell Martin was not already hacked off because he had to sit in the stands for this game, his blood pressure must have gone through the roof as the ball nestled in the bottom corner, Bree's team mates were clearly shocked and he was left to celebrate alone, with none of the rest of the Saints team willing to condone such a blatant ignoring of the manager's instructions by even offering as much as a brief handshake.
The big question now though, is just what James Bree's punishment will be for his major faux pas, sources at St Mary's have told us that although this is his second offence, Bree did something similar at Cardiff City a couple of months ago when he fired in a shot from distance in injury time which proved to be the winning goal in a 5-3 win, that he will not be fined.
After his initial anger had subsided it's believed that Martin will opt for rehabilitation rather than retribution.
After the Cardiff game, rather than being fined, Bree was dropped for the next game and replaced by Jack Stephens and our sources say that is 100% what will happen this time, but Bree will also have to do extra training in which he will have to hone up his abilities to pass sideways along the half way line as well as write 500 lines saying "I must not make passes forward"