Russell Martin : The first few glimpses of pressure ‘ I don’t come out here and lie to you’

We saw the first few glimpses of what was clearly a pressurised Russell Martin post match in Sheffield. A defensive, arms folded manager Russell Martin not only looked alone on the side of the pitch yesterday, he looked pretty vulnerable speaking to the press.

He looks like he has the whole weight of the world on his shoulders, for the enth time this season Russell Martin has to explain away his sides abysmal performance record after a Championship loss. Describing the way his players are focussed and prepared for matches he made it clear they know exactly what the game brief is. However, when asked about that by a reporter at the match press debfief Martin interrupted him and said " You can speak to the players and ask them yeah ? I don’t come up here and lie to you. Yeah it’s a problem we have one or two players who are missing again today” Explaining Michael Obafemi’s non start and Hannes Wolf both carrying injuries from last weekend the frustration most certainly was building throughout those few minutes. Composing himself again Martin reiterated " I don’t come out here and lie to you ever, I’ve said it’s a really poor performance, we are where we are”

On assessment of where he is on his Swansea journey Martin said "We’ve changed a lot, we would have liked to have changed more, I had no expectation when I came here to be honest. We are working with what we have, the guys have given us some incredible moments” It’s clearly still very much in its infancy, this process and the direction the club is heading. "We want to play in a certain way, it requires a certain character, it requires a certain physical profile, some players are well suited to it, some of whom are not, that doesn’t make them bad players though. We have what we have until the end of the season. The gap between us at our best and our worst is too big”

Russell Martin is right in respect of the challenge and the physicality, the opposition yesterday were far more ‘battled hardened’ as he put it, and again people have to understand this manager is going nowhere. He may well have lost his right hand man in Luke Williams, a situation which has been developing since early January, and it seems today there is no return for him. The Bournemouth game is right around the corner, there is no real stop in the proceedings just yet. Swans fans have to understand you don’t just employ a management team to bring about such dramatic change in a system to bin it as soon as it gets painful. The whole season and it’s change to date would be wasted, and what then ?

Shout as loud as you like, this is a situation that is developing gradually.

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