Nigel Martyn on the simplicity of goalkeeping: cans in the bath and you just try your best - The Square Ball 30/9/21

SAFE HANDS

Written by Rob Conlon

Signing Nigel Martyn for Leeds United in 1996 fit perfectly with Howard Wilkinson’s ten-year plan. Wilkinson had made sure Leeds were not left behind by the looming breakaway of the Premier League by winning promotion in 1990, and the club’s investment in the academy and youth development was beginning to bear fruit. Ian Harte was already in the first team, and by the end of the 1996/97 season, Paul Robinson, Jonathan Woodgate, Stephen McPhail and Harry Kewell were lifting the FA Youth Cup, with Alan Smith not far behind. To aid the transition, in came Martyn, the most expensive goalkeeper in Britain, alongside Lee Bowyer, the most expensive teenager.

The problem was that Wilkinson had undermined his own plan by making Leeds champions of England six years ahead of schedule, meaning fans and directors were no longer feeling quite so patient about finishing 17th, 5th (twice) and 13th after winning the title.

Nigel Martyn spoke to us for an episode of The Extra Ball, and as far as he was concerned, he was joining Leeds to play for Wilkinson, grateful for the opportunity to play in the top flight again after losing a play-off final with Crystal Palace.

“I think he felt that perhaps the team was a little bit stale at the time,” Martyn says. “It needed freshening up. He wanted to bring new faces in. He wanted me to be one of those new faces to give the club a boost, because he felt there was some good youngsters coming through with a good blend of senior players. His vision was he could see us building in the early part and then hopefully pushing to be a top four club.”

Five games and just two defeats into Martyn’s first season, Wilkinson was sacked. He winces at the memory of the game that led to Wilkinson’s dismissal, a 4-0 defeat to Scum at Elland Road, the first goal of which came courtesy of Martyn, after a header from a corner was cleared off the line by Ian Harte and onto the back of the goalkeeper’s head.

“I’d only been in the club two minutes,” Martyn says. “The players had obviously told me the importance of playing Man United. I’d played derby games at other clubs and realised how important that is and how desperate you are to win those games for your fans. That didn’t go too well! It was a good header, I tried to save it, Hartey cleared it off the line and it hit me in the back of the head and went in. Not an ideal start, especially against Man U. You’re desperate to beat them. We ended up on the end of a bit of a hammering.

“From my point of view, [Wilkinson] had just bought me so [I thought] he was going to be there for a long time. I didn’t know much about the pressure he was under towards the back end of the previous season. Then a bad start was the nail in the coffin for him.”

For plenty of fans, George Graham’s arrival as Wilkinson’s successor is remembered for the dourness of a season in which Leeds scored just 28 goals in 38 league games, grinding out results by relying on defensive stability and the brilliance of Big Nige. Martyn isn’t going to complain about the chance to record so many clean sheets, even if he rues not negotiating a clean sheet bonus in his contract.

“I’ve always been one [to think] that whoever your manager is you instantly respect them and you listen and carry out his instructions,” he says. “George realised that we were a bit porous defensively at that time and shored that up. For me it was a great thing to happen because I think the club got 23 clean sheets that season. I feel sorry for you guys that had to watch the football sometimes! It was probably a necessity. He did build from that platform and he set everything in motion to build a better club, bring in more creative players and get away from playing a back four and two centre-halves in midfield.

“George put a big emphasis on clean sheets. It was pretty important what I had to do in my role. You’ve got to trust whoever comes in and do what they ask. It’s not pretty. Everyone wants to play lovely flowing football and win 4-0 every week. That’s the joy and the hope but we all know that can’t happen. Sometimes it’s got to be a bit… not the best on the eye shall we say. But it was certainly effective.”

Part of Martyn’s success under Graham was thanks to the emergence of Lucas Radebe, who was transformed from a utility squad player into one of the best defenders in Europe.

“What a legend!” Martyn says. “Everyone loves Lucas. Every player, every supporter. A genuine nice guy, but on top of that a fierce competitor. He would kick the back legs out of any striker, [even] in training. It didn’t matter, he trained like he played. There were times when Jimmy or latterly Mark Viduka might complain, ‘What’s going on? We’ve got a game tomorrow.’ But that was just him. He was highly competitive and gave his all. I’ve spoken to the physio on numerous occasions and he’s said, ‘I don’t even know how Lucas is going out there,’ because his knees were so bad. He just kept going out there and giving everything to the club, to the point where he physically couldn’t do it anymore.

“Lucas was pretty quick as well, so you knew he could recover. If there was a ball over the top, for instance, it would make my mind up not to come and try and clear it, and then you get the centre-half and goalkeeper banging together. If it was Lucas you instantly made that decision that there’s a fair chance he’s going to get back and clear it. If it was one or two of the other centre-halves who, shall we say, weren’t quite as quick, you might have to think about a high starting position and clearing it yourself, taking control of the situation. Big Rob [Molenaar] and Big Dave Wetherall came to my mind!”

After Graham jumped at the chance to return to north London, David O’Leary took over and was able to reap the rewards of moulding a team around the young players emerging at the time of Wilkinson’s dismissal. Martyn was the wise old sage at the back, ready to bail out his excitable teammates as they rampaged through Europe.

Cruelly, injury prevented him from playing a full part in the run to the Champions League semi-final. The 1-0 win at Lazio was one of six Champions League fixtures he missed, so there was no return to Rome eight months on from his career-high Leeds performance in the Italian capital. Martyn was given a 10/10 rating by the Yorkshire Evening Post for his performance in a 0-0 draw against Roma in the UEFA Cup, as the goalkeeper combined a series of spectacular saves with a healthy dose of antagonism towards Francesco Totti and Marco Delvecchio. It may have been the only time in history Danny Mills has given someone productive advice.

“The night before, we trained on the pitch, and my back had got really stiff after training,” Martyn says. “I’d gone to see the physio and have a rub and it didn’t really do much. I went back to my room and I was a bit concerned. I was rooming with Danny Mills, and Millsy went, ‘Run yourself a bath and have a beer out of the fridge.’ I had a can of beer and sat in the bath for about half an hour and went to bed. I woke up the next day feeling great. I said to Millsy, ‘That has really helped!’

“We have the game and, yeah, it’s nice for me personally. Also, the previous season we played them and drew 0-0 at home and lost 0-1 away. And then this particular season we’d drawn 0-0 away and beat them 1-0 at home. That showed we’d moved on that bit further.

“There was a ball over the top which I collected sprinting out to the edge of my area. I think it was Delvecchio that was running to chase the ball. At the point he realised he wasn’t going to make it he made two or three steps to slow down. I guess I’ve collected the ball and slowed down not quite as quickly as he did! It was in the game at that point that if you could do something like that, you would do it. On the flipside, if it’s a far post cross and he’s coming in from behind me, he’s going to have no qualms about jumping through me. It wasn’t a predetermined thing. I remember Totti saying, ‘Martyn, Martyn, nooo!’”

Martyn eventually left Leeds in 2003 after contentiously losing his place to Paul Robinson. There is no animosity between the two, who are now teammates for Knaresborough’s cricket team. In an interview with The Athletic, Robinson described Martyn as his best friend. Martyn mentored Robinson at Elland Road, and continued to do so even after both players had left the club, never quite able to relinquish his status as the wise old sage.

“I know what it’s like to be a young player brought into that position,” he says. “For three or four games you’re running on pure adrenaline, but once you’re a little bit more settled it can be more and more difficult. I can remember feeling for him when we did lose the odd game. I remember chatting to him and him feeling, not that he’s to blame, but worrying about that. As a senior player my job was easy, and I tried to tell Robbo how easy the job is: you just go out every time and try your best. That’s the only pressure you put on yourself. That is literally all I ever did. I tried to instill that in Robbo, not to overthink things.

“I can remember chatting to him after England were playing away somewhere and Gary Neville laid him back a lovely ball. He’s gone to hit it first time — Robbo was a lovely kicker of a football — and it has just bobbled over his foot. He was having a real crisis of confidence over it. I remember him saying, ‘What could you actually do about that?’ Well there’s nothing, it’s just hit a bobble, there you go. If there’s nothing you can do about something, don’t give it headroom. It’s gone, move on and play your game as you ordinarily do. He was going, ‘It’s not that easy though.’ And I was going, ‘Well, it is that easy. If something is out of your control, don’t waste time thinking about it.’”

Goalkeeping is that simple, according to Nigel Martyn, which goes a long way to explaining why Leeds United never felt safer than when he was standing between the posts.