Russell Martin: Swansea City head coach in talks about new contract
- Published
Russell Martin celebrates last Sunday's historic third straight south Wales derby win
Swansea City head coach Russell Martin has started talks about a new contract.
Martin, who has led Swansea to fourth place in the Championship, was appointed in August last year and his current deal expires in 2024.
He has been linked to former club Norwich City, whose manager Dean Smith is under pressure, but Martin is not interested in leaving the Swans.
"We're really happy here and I hope we're here for a long time, and I mean that," he said.
"The club have spoken about potentially extending our stay and all that stuff so we'll see how that goes. We're more than open to that. We would like that.
"That's up to the club to decide whether we're doing a good enough job for that. It's been 15 months of really hard work.
"I hope everyone can see we're on the right path, hopefully early on in the journey together, but how well we do on the pitch will impact how long we're here."
Swansea have been in fine form lately, with last Sunday's south Wales derby victory over Cardiff City making it six wins from seven for Martin's side.
By contrast, Norwich are winless in six and have picked up just one victory from their past eight games to increase the pressure on Smith.
As a player, Martin captained Norwich during an eight-year stint at Carrow Road, and his connections to the club have fuelled speculation that he might be in contention to succeed Smith if the former Aston Villa manager was sacked.
However, Martin dismissed such conjecture and said: "They've got a great manager in Dean. I still know a lot of people at the club, a lot of good friends in and around the area, but that's as far as it goes.
"I've got no doubt that they'll pick up results again at some point soon so not really [paying attention to speculation].
"We're in a job that we absolutely love with people we absolutely love doing it with. That's the most important thing really.
"Our families are really happy. All the time it's like that, we're happy and enjoying it here, then all of that stuff [speculation] is just noise.
"I'm sure it piques people's interest because it's a club I was at for a long time and Gilly [assistant head coach Matt Gill] is from there, but it's exactly the same as when I was asked a few weeks ago about whatever job it was."
Meanwhile, Swansea will be boosted by the return of defender Ryan Manning and attacking midfielder Jamie Paterson from injury for Saturday's trip to Bristol City.
But Martin does not expect Wales midfielder Joe Allen, who has a hamstring injury, to feature for the Swans before the World Cup, which starts for Wales on 21 November.