Russell Martin Closes In On Leicester City Job After Rangers Exit

russell martin is close to being appointed Leicester City manager after his 17-game spell at Rangers ended in October. Leicester are set for another change after back-to-back relegations in 2024-25 and a six-point deduction for breaching English Football League financial rules.

Leicester City’s Martin Move

Martin is due to return to management for the first time since Rangers sacked him while they were eighth in the Scottish Premiership. Leicester wanted him last summer before he joined Rangers, and the club now look ready to install him after Marti Cifuentes lasted six months before being sacked in January.

That leaves Leicester moving again through a managerial cycle that has become routine since Brendan Rogers departed in April 2023. Martin would be the club’s seventh manager in just over three years.

Martin’s Rangers Exit

His Rangers run ended after 17 games, a short spell that closed with the team in eighth. It also interrupted the path back to a job where Leicester had already identified him as a target before his move north.

Martin’s coaching record still includes Southampton, where he led the club to the Premier League by winning the Championship play-offs in 2023-24. He has also managed MK Dons and Swansea, and his playing career included Wycombe, Peterborough, Norwich, Walsall and MK Dons.

Leicester After Relegation

Leicester’s next manager inherits a club trying to reset after falling into League One under interim boss Gary Rowett. The six-point deduction sits alongside the relegations as the clearest part of the job’s backdrop, and it sharpens the pressure on the appointment.

For Leicester, the move points to another restart after a stretch of instability that has already taken them from Rogers to Cifuentes to Rowett. For Martin, it would be a quick return to the dugout and a chance to begin again at a club that has waited since last summer to bring him in.