Whites must do a Leicester - Martyn (long!)

raveydavey · Whites must do a Leicester - Martyn (long!)

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.c...-United-Whites-must-do.5360220.jp

Next season's fixture list will land in Simon Grayson's lap next week, and masterminding a flying start should be foremost in the mind of Leeds United's manager, according to Nigel Martyn.
English campaigns are marathon programmes and United are due to receive the details of the new League One season on Wednesday morning, but Martyn – the club's former goalkeeper – is certain that Grayson will treat the early weeks of the 2009-10 schedule like a sprint.

United's defeat in the play-off semi-finals last month stirred predictable noises from Elland Road marking out automatic promotion as an imperative target next season, but Martyn doubts whether Grayson would set his standards as low as second place.

He expects United's boss to try and follow in the footsteps of Leicester City and attempt to win League One convincingly.

At no stage of the recent term could Leeds claim to have dominated their division, in spite of their pre-season optimism. Leicester held first place by the end of August and never looked back, leaving behind them a United squad who sparkled only in patches.

Revisiting the consistency of August and September in 2007, when Leeds won their first seven league matches, is a target which Martyn hopes Grayson will set his players.

United, for the third year running, are the club under the most penetrating microscope after two seasons in League One, the one team who will lack an acceptable excuse if promotion eludes them again.

In Martyn's opinion, United cannot risk another campaign fought in amongst the pack.

"Leicester were the perfect example of what major clubs need to do in this league," said Martyn. "A bit of a blueprint, if you like.

"When Simon gets hold of the fixtures next week, the first thing he'll say to himself is 'let's start like a house on fire'. Leeds have to do that next season – or accept that they're going to be under huge pressure again.

"So much of the attention this season was fixed on Leeds and it was quite revealing that the opposite was true of Leicester. They got off to a great start and people seemed to accept quite early on that they were going to win the title.

"The ideal scenario for Simon is that, by Christmas, other clubs will be looking at Leeds and saying 'they're out of reach'.

"When he says that automatic promotion is the minimum aim next season, he'll mean it.

"The club would obviously settle for second place – they're at the stage now where they need to get out of League One any way they can – but they won't want to get into a tight battle involving four or five clubs, or to find themselves having to make up ground at crucial periods.

"The last two seasons have warned them about that."

Martyn, who represented Leeds between 1996 and 2003, compared the season awaiting United to that he experienced with Everton four years ago, when the Merseyside club achieved the rare feat of finishing fourth in the Premier League, briefly breaking the long-standing monopoly held by Chelsea, Scumchester United, Arsenal and neighbours Liverpool on Champions League qualification.

Everton began the 2004-05 season with five wins from seven league fixtures, the platform for their final league standing, and Martyn was struck by the confidence their squad gained from setting the pace so soon after creeping into 17th place on the last day of the previous term.

"That was a remarkable season for Everton, and I always felt that so much of it was down to the superb start we had," Martyn said. "We'd gone close to getting relegated the season before, and there's no doubt that it's much easier to lead from the front than it is to be trailing behind other clubs.

"A good start gives you breathing space and a bit of margin for error, and that's what Leeds need to earn themselves.

"It's unrealistic to expect them to go through next season unbeaten, and every club will have one or two wobbles, but the problem last season what that when United's blip came before Christmas, they didn't have enough points on the board to avoid major damage.

"Leicester came unstuck a little bit in the last couple of months but they were home and dry by then.

"It's all about having your fate in your hands and whatever people say about the play-offs, they don't guarantee you anything. There won't be anyone at Leeds who'll want to take that route again."

The play-offs were not a scenario that Martyn ever expected Leeds to become involved in, so soon after the successful era he witnessed at Elland Road.

The St Austell-born player was a Premier League player throughout his seven years and 207 league appearances with United, and he was fortunate to see the best of times at Elland Road.

His career peaked with appearances in both legs of United's Champions League semi-final against Valencia in 2001 and though typically the bridesmaid behind Arsenal's David Seaman, his consummate performances for Leeds kept him at the heart of the selection process for the English national team.

Martyn's only regret is that his spell at Elland Road was soured by his final season, when a tense relationship with manager Terry Venables and a sustained period on the bench behind Paul Robinson told him that the summer of 2003 might be the appropriate time for a fresh start.

Twelve months earlier, Martyn's decision to miss United's pre-season tour to Asia shortly after the 2002 World Cup opened the door for Robinson and the 6ft 4in keeper did not play one senior game during the 2002-03 season.

The timing of his departure could be seen as perfect – in the six years since, United have experience the type of extreme downturn which he feared might be coming but could not have fully predicted.

"When I left Leeds, you got the feeling that they were in a bad way, but I never expected it to come to this," Martyn said.

"All the same, my time there was soured a little bit by the way it all ended. I didn't feel I was treated particularly well in my last season and as delighted as I was to go to Everton, which was a great way to finish my career, it was a shame that my time at Leeds had to end that way.

"If things had been handled different then I could have played my part in helping to keep the club in the Premiership and, who knows, I might still have been playing for Leeds now. I'm 42 but goalkeepers have a pretty long shelf life.

"I left six years ago and I don't know how you'd best describe those six years for Leeds. Very frustrating, I guess.

"Like so many people, I'm a bit bewildered when I think about what's happened because it's difficult to accept that so much damage could be done to a club like that.

"As far as I'm concerned, they can't recover soon enough."

Whether Martyn's career would have run into his 40s is a moot point, left unanswered by the fact that a serious ankle injury compelled him to retire in 2006.

A stress fracture which refused to heal gave him with no alternative, and his appearance in a match between Everton and Chelsea in January of that year was his last professional outing.

Martyn has since worked as Bradford City's goalkeeping coach, though he is not clear whether the club plan to retain him for next season after their own failure to earn promotion from League Two.

He is still unable to kick a football due to the condition of his ankle, but neither retirement nor the injury have convinced him that, after almost 20 years as a professional, his time was up.

"I think every footballer knows they'll reach a day when, for the first time, they can't face getting out of bed for training," said Martyn. "I have to say that I never got the chance to reach it.

"I was 39 when I retired but at that stage I was still happily jumping out of bed at 6am every morning to drive over to Everton's training ground.

"I wasn't ready to go and I'm not sure I would have been now. Retirement's not just about age – it's more about when the fire goes out.

"Coaching with Bradford has been a good way of staying involved, even though I can't strike a ball. The stress fracture will always be there and I'm not as flexible as I should be but injuries are the one thing a player can't control.

"The little bit of frustration comes from knowing the decision to retire was taken out of your hands."