Luke Williams: Swansea boss hopes for 'goodwill' towards returning Russell Martin
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Luke Williams (left) led Notts County to promotion from the National League last season
Swansea City head coach Luke Williams hopes Southampton boss Russell Martin receives "goodwill" from Swans fans on his return to the club.
Martin's Saints face Swansea in the Championship on Saturday in what will be the ex-Swans coach's first return to the club since leaving in June 2023.
Williams, 42, worked as an assistant to Martin at MK Dons as well as Swansea.
Martin is perhaps best remembered at Swansea for four straight wins over local rivals Cardiff City.
He was acknowledged by Swans supporters during Southampton's 5-0 win at St Mary's in December.
"I hope there is a lot of goodwill," said Williams. "I was part of that same [coaching] team, by the way [that beat Cardiff]. I was part of that squad that was involved in the first derby.
"So I would like to think that if I came back at some point people would say 'this guy worked really hard for us and was involved in something good'.
"I certainly don't want there to be to be any ill feeling towards Russell or Gilly [Matt Gill, Martin's assistant manager at Southampton] or Dean [Thornton, Southampton goalkeeping coach] and I certainly would like to be included in people thinking that we tried really hard and we tried to bring some energy to the club.
"So I wouldn't I wouldn't want any bad feelings. Absolutely not."
Southampton are third in the Championship and undefeated in their past 20 games in all competitions, including that 5-0 win at home to Swansea prior to Williams' appointment.
"They are a brilliant side. Russell has done an incredible job there," added Williams.
"We have to play a really good game, otherwise you're not going to get anything off a side that good, so we are trying to make our preparation and make it clear about how well we have to perform to be competitive but it's impossible to say anything other than 'they're a top side in the division'.
"We work together and share ideas but Russell will have moved on since I last worked with him and I'm sure I have moved on since we last worked together.
"I think everyone knows there is going to be similarities but there will always be an evolution.
"A lot has happened and a week in football is a lifetime, so imagine 18 months and a promotion and going through a play-off campaign [at Notts County] and then Russell playing incredible football in this division, moving to a club in a huge moment because they came down [from the Premier League] and have a desire to go straight back up.
"So imagine the different scenario that he has to face now. Everything that we both have done since we stopped working together has been challenging and will have given us a different outlook and different tools
"I've been coaching for a long, long time before I met Russell on week two of his journey [as manager of MK Dons].
"He had great ideas and I'd already been working with a number of different squads and different levels so we had ideas that we talk about.
"You have to remember we spent 10 hours a day together because we were working in a stadium that had a hotel and we lived in the hotel.
"We worked all day. We got changed, ate dinner and carried on talking and effectively working. Then in the morning, we'd go for breakfast and start working, so we spent a huge amount of time together, thinking about ideas.
"Of course he had an influence on me and a positive one as well.
"Whatever time we spend together, working together, we had a positive influence on each other."
