Swansea City manager Russell Martin has insisted that leaving to take over at either Norwich City or Rangers was never a possibility for him despite both jobs being available recently.
Martin has a connection with Norwich from his lengthy spell with the Canaries in his playing career where he racked up over 300 appearances for the Canaries. When they made the decision to dismiss Daniel Farke after their 2-1 win at Brentford before the international break, the Swansea manager was suggested as a possible contender for the role.
The same situation applied to Martin following Steven Gerrard’s decision to leave Rangers and take over at Aston Villa. The Swansea boss was linked with the job initially, but then further reports indicated that there had not been any contact between the Scottish champions and the Swans regarding his future.
Martin will therefore now continue his work with the Swans and he will be aiming to keep their recent momentum going and get back on track following their 4-0 defeat at league leaders AFC Bournemouth before the international break. A run of three wins in four before that loss had put the Swans back into the top half of the table.
Speaking to Wales Online, Martin has reiterated his desire to remain in post and help to continue the work he has been doing at Swansea so far when asked about being linked with both Norwich and Rangers.
He said: “It is what it is. It's just two jobs that have come up where I’ve played previously. I’m in a job I’m so happy in, in a place I’m so happy in. My family enjoy it, the coaching staff enjoy it.
"I spoke about it being all in, so for us to even contemplate leaving after three months would have been lunacy.
"So there was nothing in it for us. I was getting texts and messages and all sorts.
"I guess it shows we’re doing something right that we’re getting linked with other jobs. But I pay no attention to it. We're really happy here. Really focused with what we're doing. We feel there’s so much potential here over a period of time.
"We just need to keep growing. Keep improving. I think we’ve got a really exciting group of players that are just giving us everything we can ask for.
"We just win some more games, and ignore the noise whenever it comes along."
The verdict
These comments from Martin are exactly what Swansea supporters would want to hear. He has emphasised his commitment to the club and that should really put to bed any talk of him potentially leaving the club so soon into his time in charge.
Martin is someone that Swansea should be aiming to build under for the long-term because his style of play suits perfectly with the expectations of supporters and he will therefore be afforded time to build things. Taking over from Steve Cooper and transforming the style was always going to be a difficult task, but he is starting to show signs of doing that.
You can see why a progressive young manager like Martin is being linked with other jobs, and his connection to both Norwich and Rangers from his playing days always left it with a chance that they could make a move for him.
However, it seems that Martin did not want to even consider leaving his job at Swansea right now. That has to be an encouraging sign that he feels he can build something positive during his time in charge of the Welsh club.