“Some days you would have to eat a bit of toast for dinner and some days you would have a nice bit of pasta, it was what it was and we all mucked in together,” Russell Martin recalls.

Now five seasons into a management career in the EFL, following a 15-year playing career, Martin smiles despite describing the difficult circumstances of his adolescence.

Around the millennium, in Brighton, a teenage Martin lives with only his brothers – two older and one younger – and is already working either side of school to help support the family.

Martin would clean pubs in the morning, clean windows in the evening and also worked in corner shops Co-op and Spar. An older brother’s business bore much of the financial burden.

In previous interviews, he revealed he was eight when his family had to move as his father lost the home due to gambling addiction. The brothers were later left alone after a messy divorce.

“Growing up, I saw a lot of stuff I wouldn’t want my kids to see and saw a lot of people I didn’t like – you either try and change the cycle or you become the next part,” he tells the Daily Echo.

“I think it helped me grow emotional intelligence and understanding people’s energy and trusting my gut instinct on that.

“It was quite tough at times, going to work at 15 because no parents were home anymore. But we had to find a way between us, we didn’t have much choice.

“It gives you a bit of gratitude. The kid that was there at 15, doing this now – I feel very grateful, it’s how I can maintain some sort of calm amongst all of the chaos.”

Martin is speaking to the Daily Echo for over an hour in this interview, having just invited us to watch the morning’s training and to eat lunch in the first-team player and staff canteen.  

The 37 year old, whose family also included his best friend from school, fostered by Martin’s mother since the age of 11, has done a lot of thinking.

Martin almost left to study coaching and journalism in America – he insists he would not make a good sports reporter in the modern era – before getting his break at Wycombe in 2004.

During his twenties, one of his brothers introduced Martin to some aspects of Buddhism – although the former defender admits he is still not massive on organised religion.

One aspect he has taken into his personal and professional life is the idea of karmic retribution. A cause-and-effect principle that sees future consequences for good and bad deeds. 

“I think what you put out you get back, and you attract good people if you try and be a good person – but I know I have the capability to be quite horrible or ruthless,” Martin explained.

Daily Echo: Pictures from Southampton's 4-4 draw with Norwich City

“I think the people who pretend they haven’t got the capability to do something quite bad are the people you should worry about.

“I saw so much of it in my upbringing, so I know it’s in there somewhere. This game can be quite brutal and I choose to connect with people,” he added.

“There has been only one time I’ve flown off the handle at the lads this season and it wasn’t after Sunderland, I wasn’t happy on the training pitch today for about five minutes.

“If I’m not honest, it causes conflict within me. It doesn’t feel very good, and when people are dishonest it gives you tension somewhere – so I choose to be honest.”

Martin is quick to state that he would not call himself a Buddhist, despite having done plenty of reading on the subject and admitting he will likely chant again, as is traditional in the faith.

When asked what he would tell Jake Humphrey – he brought up the presenter’s podcast – if quizzed on his meaning of ‘high performance’, Martin would simply respond ‘presence’.

Manifestation – bringing thoughts into reality through focus and belief – is another revealing aspect Martin has taken from curiosity and, as much as he does not like to admit it, his spirituality.  

Martin said: “The visualisation stuff was something I always struggled with as a player. We’d have a psychologist come in and tell us to visualise stuff.

READ: Behind the scenes at Southampton's training ahead of Leicester City 

“All I could ever visualise was a mistake. It would be one positive and then a short back-pass, a missed tackle or scoring an own goal – my brain would try and tell me I’m not good enough.

“Imposter syndrome because of the route I took, not getting into it until I was a bit older and going from League Two to the Premier League, feeling like I had to prove everyone wrong.

“The last thing my dad would say was don’t make a mistake. I hear it now at kid’s football, ‘Get rid of it’ and ‘Don’t play with it there’. They’re seven years old.  

“The visualising is not sitting there and visualising for a long time, but it’s thinking about what I want at the end of the season – celebrating on the pitch with my family.

“It doesn’t just happen by thinking about it but I work every day with that in the back of my mind to make it happen.”

In an interview with Training Ground Guru last year, the former Swansea City and MK Dons boss spoke candidly about the eventual inevitability of being sacked as a football manager.

So far, Martin has avoided that. Never before have the expectations on him been higher than at Saints, a club internally and externally expecting a speedy return to the Premier League.

Although Southampton went unbeaten in their first four Championship matches, winning three, a 5-0 hammering at Sunderland before the international break raised eyebrows across the division.

“If Jason (Wilcox) has to ring me one day saying it hasn’t worked out, as long as I can walk knowing I’ve treated people well and given them all I can, I’ll just learn from it,” Martin adds.

“I met with Graham Potter last week for coffee; a brilliant guy and a brilliant manager. It was fascinating listening to him talk about Chelsea and how grateful he is for that experience.

Daily Echo: File photo dated 12-02-2022 of Brighton and Hove Albion manager Graham Potter who has urged his players not to become preoccupied looking over their shoulders at the Premier League relegation zone. Issue date: Friday April 8, 2022. PA Photo. See PA story

“He said he wouldn’t change anything about himself, but I know all the nonsense around him was incredible. He didn’t get sacked for 12 years, every day maintaining that intensity.

“This job can be stressful because you care about how people feel, and after last Saturday, I had a couple of hours where it was the end of the world.

“I always look on the good side of people and situations too much but (Matt) Gilly and Dean (Thornton) are different – Gilly is more balanced and Dean is more cynical, it works well.”

Martin makes us aware he thinks some in the game believe he is "arrogant or whatever" but insists that kind of reputation only bothers him if it is someone he has worked with. 

“It’s also not stubbornness,” he said. “I’m not stubborn, I want to have conversations and learn and I’m open to being flexible and adaptable.

“But if you believe in something so much, you have to have conviction – and conviction and stubbornness can be very similar.

“The game is full of fear. The way we play requires ultimate courage and I have to have courage to stick to what I believe in, but I never just do the same thing all the time.

“I get it, I’m 37 and haven’t won anything. The team plays in a way that was called ‘extreme’ by a couple of people at Swansea recently but I don’t see it as extreme.”

After a chaotic summer professionally, Martin is now settled in his personal life with his three children, ages 11, nine and eight, back in school.

He cherishes his wife Jasmine, whose wedding was postponed two weeks so Martin could play as Scotland beat Croatia in June 2013, and his two year old Cocker Spaniel called Barney.

Martin is based back in Hove, just over an hour from Southampton, as he did not want to move his kids somewhere new again – they have already had four schools, as a result of his work.

It also means he is within touching distance of an ever-growing charitable project he put his name to years ago – the Russell Martin Foundation.

Originally just a football academy, the Brighton & Hove-based organisation now employs more than 20 people full-time to deliver football, education and health programmes.

“I was getting later into my career and Sergio Torres, one of my best mates, was retired or retiring. Chris Whelpdale was the same and another very good friend,” Martin explained.

“I’d known Gary (Mansell) and he had set up the academy but felt he couldn’t take it much further without some help and support so I was like let’s do that.

“It’s something I would have liked in the area when I was young because you either played for Brighton or a grassroots team with no expert coaching in between.

“Lots pop up short-term to try and make a bit of money but nothing that cares for the kids, so we started delivering free sessions to a few schools in deprived areas as well.

“I was playing at the Premier League at the time and it was a way of giving back, as well as helping a few mates at the time – it helped Serg stay in the game while he did his badges.”

The foundation grew quickly from having just 12 kids on its first 'holiday course', with Martin investing with no expectation of getting anything back.

Dr Alan Sanders, chief executive, has steered the foundation to offer structured education away from mainstream schools, which Martin recognises is “not for everyone”, delivering at KS2, 3 and 4.

They now own a 3G pitch and are taking a run-down facility at Southwick FC to develop another artificial surface and classrooms.

Martin, chair of the trustees, doesn’t have day-to-day involvement and insists he can’t take credit other than good people together. His name went on it primarily to get help from the PFA.

“Now we provide extra time provision for kids before they reach the end of the line with schools giving up on them,” he continued, with a smile.

“The ones they say are struggling, our team will look at them and see how much we can do for them.

“There are so many issues at play, not just at school but at home; parents and drug abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse, some of the stories are horrific.

“The impact we can have in three or four months, sometimes longer, to get them back into mainstream schools has been amazing, and how much it’s grown.

“The one thing they’re not really doing is telling everyone how great they are! They do so much good work, it’s a team of 30 people, and I want them to take credit for it.”

It is interesting and evocative to sit and talk with Martin, both off-record over lunch and in a recorded interview setting. He is a manager who is genuinely attentive and interested.

He is someone seemingly aware of opinions about him despite both insistence that he does not consume outside noise and his self-conviction.

Martin commands the same respect he bestows on others while simultaneously taking a self-deprecating view of his achievements, particularly regarding his playing career.

Given his journey, everyone he has connected with and that bit of doubt that always remains, it will not only be Martin touched if he can celebrate with his family, on the pitch, next May.