Journalist provides latest on Southampton boss Russell Martin's links to Brighton job | OneFootball

Southampton boss Russell Martin is someone Brighton and Hove Albion admire, Dean Jones has confirmed to Give Me Sport.

The Saints' boss has been linked with plenty of jobs throughout his managerial career and has already moved twice, making the switches away from MK Dons and Swansea City, leaving the latter for his current team.

Yet to be sacked by a team and making a decent impact at all three clubs that he has managed, the former defender is a very highly-rated young coach and could take another step up the football pyramid sooner rather than later.

His team currently sit fourth in the Championship table and look destined to finish in the play-offs after dropping points in recent times.

Considering the strength of their squad, the Saints may be disappointed to finish outside of the top two.

However, they cashed in on some key players during the summer, including Romeo Lavia, Tino Livramento and James Ward-Prowse.

Nathan Tella, who was tipped to be a real asset this term, was also sold with the winger making the move to Bayer Leverkusen.

This move certainly looks to have benefitted Tella, with Leverkusen looking likely to secure the Bundesliga title under Xabi Alonso.

It's unlikely to have helped the Saints' cause though, with the south-coast side set to fall short of the top two, and they aren't guaranteed to win the play-offs either.

Despite this, the Seagulls have been linked with a move for Martin, who is still seemingly attracting admirers despite only moving on again last summer.

Brighton have reportedly been in talks with the ex-Norwich City defender, with those talks taking place during the past international break.

And journalist Jones has confirmed the south-coast side are admirers of the 38-year-old.

He told Give Me Sport: "The Brighton link is interesting because before they appointed De Zerbi he was actually one of the other people they had in mind.

"If you think about the way that Russell Martin is as a manager and the adaptations he has made along the way at Southampton so far, it is actually not too far from the philosophy Brighton look for.

"I think this is a big period for Martin because how Saints come out of this season will reflect on him. If they fail to get up, I’m not sure what next season looks like. But if he gets them up, a whole world of possibilities really opens up.

"Whether this is an active pursuit of Martin right now I cannot confirm but in terms of it having some potential as a rumour, there is some substance to the fact he is already admired and it would not be a huge stretch to imagine him being in the frame.

"We know Brighton will already have ideas though about successors for De Zerbi and one thing for sure is there will be more than one name on the list and I would not be surprised to see one or two new names surface in the next week or so."

Brighton's managerial decision may depend on Southampton's success

The Saints are doing fairly well at the moment, but unless they win promotion, this season will have arguably been a failure.

In fairness, the club balanced their books by selling key players and Martin needs to be cut some slack for that.

But unless they are promoted, it's hard to see how the 38-year-old deserves the opportunity to move once again.

He hasn't got a promotion on his CV yet and his teams have struggled defensively at times.

There are probably more suitable candidates out there at this point, even though Martin has a lot of potential.