{"id":936632,"date":"2026-10-22T07:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T07:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936632\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T07:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T07:28:09","slug":"leicester-city-is-russell-martin-turning-things-around-at-leicester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936632\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester City: Is Russell Martin turning things around at Leicester?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday’s 4-0 thumping of Bromley<\/a> followed the 2-1 win over Doncaster <\/a>which dampened the external noise.<\/p>\n

Martin – a sometimes polarising personality with fans who have criticised his style and ability following a 17-game spell at Rangers last season<\/a> – had been the target of anger following two wins in eight which left them 17th in League One and a point above the relegation zone.<\/p>\n

Home defeats by Burton, Oxford and Peterborough were a world away from the Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid in 2017. <\/p>\n

That has little bearing internally at the club and BBC Sport can reveal the Foxes were working under a transfer embargo for five weeks in the summer.<\/p>\n

It related to the EFL’s Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP) with an independent Club Financial Review Panel agreeing future Premier League distributions within Leicester’s SCMP calculation could not be used to increase their spending capacity.<\/p>\n

It meant the club could not sign players until they brought money in, although it only disrupted the order of summer business. <\/p>\n

Jeremy Monga and Abdul Fatawu<\/a> were not sold until the middle of July and only after Monga left for Manchester City <\/a>on 11 July were the Foxes able to bring in Conor Chaplin and Alex McCarthy five days later.<\/p>\n

Four of the starting XI on Tuesday signed on deadline day and 66% of the players joined after the season started.<\/p>\n

Leicester missed out on targets who were not willing to wait but Chaplin, McCarthy and Wes Burns were just three who were prepared to hold on to join Martin.<\/p>\n

It is the relationships the head coach has built and something which has started to turn the tide at Seagrave.<\/p>\n

Martin inherited a broken, expensive squad, which had lost the faith and connection with supporters and a dressing room which let egos get in the way and lacked work ethic. <\/p>\n

In a different financial reality, it needed to be stripped back and, including loans and academy exits, 34 players left the club in the summer and 16 arrived. <\/p>\n

Sources have told BBC Sport the atmosphere at the club has now markedly improved.<\/p>\n

The \u00a3100m training ground is one of the best in the country – with a herb garden and golf course – but has been seen as part of the problem over the decline in standards.<\/p>\n

Players have been allowed to become too comfortable but Martin has worked hard to change the culture and behaviours.<\/p>\n

There is a blanket ban on mobile phones in the canteen and anyone breaking the rules is not fined, they run.<\/p>\n

Players – and staff – have to run the length of the pitch and back in 35 seconds three times, with a 35-second break in between. <\/p>\n

The same punishment is handed out for lateness, with Martin and his senior staff also adhering to it to set the standards.<\/p>\n

Earlier this season players left tape and drinks at the swimming pool and were shown a picture the next day. The punishment was the same. Run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday’s 4-0 thumping of Bromley followed the 2-1 win over Doncaster which dampened the external noise. Martin –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-936632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}