Ian Graham was one of the laptop gurus behind Liverpool’s success in the Klopp era, as director of research. Here he details one of the signings that laid that success, and signed before Klopp was Liverpool manager.

Some strong words from Russell Martin, who takes his Southampton side to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Many feared the end was nigh for Martin after the loss to Leicester, but he has come out fighting.

“Perception and reality are often very far apart in football. A lot of people made up that it was ‘do or die’ against Leicester City and that I would be sacked if we lost. To the point where I got asked about my job after the game, because in this industry you’re just allowed to ask about people’s jobs all the time,” Martin said.

“I’m here. I have a really good relationship with the owners. We’re trying to build and grow something, build on what we’ve done over the last 15 or 16 months. And I’ll continue to do that to the best of my ability, with the same love and care that I have in the time that I’ve been here, the same will to improve and the same work ethic.

“So until I’m told otherwise, I will do that. We’ve got a really good, honest and open relationship. I want more points, they want more points. Should we have had more points? Yes. I think if the performances and data suggested much differently, if it wasn’t what it was, then maybe it’s different conversations. But I feel nothing but support from them right now and it won’t impact my job either way.”

Here’s what to look out for in the top flight this weekend …

John Brewin will be here shortly to take up the reins. I’ve got to pop off for a bit.

Sean Dyche, Marco Silva and Andoni Iraola are among the Premier League managers who have been addressing the press this morning. He’ll run through what they’ve said (if they’ve said anything interesting) and I’ll be back on a bit later. Grab yourself a coffee.

Elsewhere in Europe’s secondary competition:

Ipswich looking to emulate Brentford? They could do a lot worse. And Kieran McKenna believes Brentford are a model for promoted clubs to copy in the Premier League, while insisting Ipswich have had a different route to the top light.

Under manager Thomas Frank, the Bees secured promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 2021 and finished ninth in the table the following year. Now in their fourth season, Brentford sit 13th in the league and come up against newly-promoted Ipswich on Saturday afternoon.

The Tractor Boys enjoyed back-to-back promotions to reach the top-flight for the first time in 22 years and while McKenna stressed that Ipswich are on their own path, he believes Brentford can be seen as a good example for newly-promoted clubs to learn from.

They’ve got their own model, I think everyone’s model is different, but there’s no doubt that they’ve done a fantastic job as a club and Thomas has done a fantastic job as a manager and the coaching staff with him.

I think different clubs have their own context, of course there’s things that Brentford have done well that we can take some inspiration from. On the other hand, their journey is different than ours, the season before they got promoted, they lost in the play-off final. They had a couple of years pushing at the very top of the Championship.

By the time they arrived in the Premier League, to be honest, they’re probably pretty much had their Premier League team already set.

They’ve had their own journey, our journey is very different to that with the speed of the ascent that we’ve made, but there’s no doubt they’ve done some things very well and any newly-promoted club can look at some of the things they’ve done and see it as an example.

Last night was a recall to vintage José Mourinho, wasn’t it?

There was something knowing in his box office rage against the referee, Clement Turpin, as well as his post and pre-match press conferences, in the full knowledge that millions of eyes would be on him and Fenerbahce given it was Manchester United and this iteration of Manchester United, manager under fire and all that. Mou even made a plea to return to the Premier League one day.

The contrast to Erik ten Hag’s far more placid and rather forgettable interviews couldn’t have been starker.

“I think the best thing I have to do when I leave Fenerbahce I go to a club that doesn’t play in Uefa competitions,” said Mourinho with a wink. “So if any club in ­England at the bottom of the table needs a manager in the next two years, I’m ready to go. I don’t want to say anything else – we played ­absolutely fantastic against a team that is far more superior.”

Never change, José.

Lazio player reports racist abuse

Also in the world of football this weekend, in a lovely twist of narrative, England’s women play Germany at Wembley tonight.

The friendly clash is the first meeting between the sides since the Euro 2022 final and comes JUST DAYS after England’s men’s side appointed a German, Thomas Tuchel, as manager. Of course, the Lionesses have had an overseas manager for some time and she’s done rather well.

Leah Williamson has been speaking some sense, as usual, about the situation.

Williamson said: “You can’t pick and choose when it suits us [to have a foreign coach], just based on the result. We’ve had great times with Sarina, I think she’s an honorary Brit now anyway. I know that we’ve all been very happy with Sarina.”

Preamble