Russell Martin told to fix 3 'major' Leicester City issues | OneFootball

The Foxes have now confirmed the appointment of the ex-Scotland defender

Leicester City have finally confirmed the appointment of Russell Martin for their upcoming 2026/27 League One campaign, with the 40-year-old now facing a huge rebuilding job at the King Power Stadium.

The Foxes have been on a severe downward curve in the past three years, having been relegated twice from the Premier League in said timeframe, as well as now dropping into League One for just the second-ever time in club history.

This comes just a decade on from their finest hour, the underdog Premier League title victory under Claudio Ranieri, but fast-forward to the present, and the situation which the East Midlands outfit finds itself in couldn't be at a greater contrast.

Martin's own managerial career has been one of immense intrigue and contrasts too, as the former Scotland international defender was the subject of praise during his initial spell at MK Dons, before earning a break into the Championship on this front with Swansea City.

However, he has since received plenty of criticism for how his tenures at both Southampton, and most recently, Scottish giants, Rangers, panned out, even though he helped Saints - like Leicester - achieve a first-time promotion back to the Premier League two years ago.

The club's decision to hand Martin a three-year deal has brought about mixed reactions, and Football League World's Leicester City fan pundit, Jamie Preston, has highlighted the issues which the new head coach must attempt to resolve above all else right from the get-go.

Russell Martin alerted to major Leicester City issues as League One campaign looms

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Martin is, of course, known to adopt a possession-based style, and as previously mentioned, this has yielded mixed results in his previous managerial posts.

The Brighton-born man, in his first interview in the post, declared: "we need to be a machine that is together, that fights together, that runs together, that works together." But, in order to achieve such ambitions, Preston told FLW that the new boss must reshape the squad successfully.

"I think he's got some major issues to sort out, but the biggest one is the squad.

"He's got a lot of players that don't want to be there, and are not interested in being there, want to get away and have said they don't want to play in League One," he claimed.

"He's got to get the squad down and get players in who want to play for the club and the shirt, and give 110% every game, not like the past couple of seasons where they've only given 60% or 70% and thought, 'that's enough'.

"That doesn't work. Not in League One, it doesn't work," Preston stated.

"The wage bill's got to come down. Some of those who don't want to be here are on huge wages as well.

"We need to get a squad capable of winning the league, or (at worst) getting in the play-offs.

"He also needs to bring some of the academy players through a bit more," he continued.

"Yes, we've seen some of that in the past couple of years, but they need to be introduced more.

"Hopefully he can trim the squad, get rid of some of the 'deadwood' and bring more of the youth through. They're the first issues I hope Russell Martin sorts out."

Russell Martin will be aware of the size of Leicester City's rebuilding job

The aforementioned three issues are ones which have been spoken about at length, in particular, the moving on of players and trimming the wage bill.

Despite receiving a six-point deduction in February for breaching the EFL's PSR regulations and not spending a fee on transfers in 2025/26, it was still ESTIMATED that Leicester had the Championship's highest wage bill, which makes their relegation even more staggering.

Unsurprisingly, many have been linked with moves away on top of 10 players who will depart on free transfers on June 30th, with interest rife in the likes of Jeremy Monga and Abdul Fatawu in particular.

As Preston alluded to, the likes of Monga and Louis Page are two examples of youth prospects being given a chance to shine at the King Power, but below them, not many have been handed the same opportunity.

However, in Martin, they have someone who introduced the likes of Tyler Dibling into Southampton's first-team fold, which will encourage supporters.

That said, the new head coach will certainly be aware of the task at hand, as City look to replicate their only previous campaign at the level, where they won the title 17 years ago under Nigel Pearson.