I HAVE a confession to make. Sometimes, the best ‘football’ teams bore me.

No, I am not talking about Manchester City winning the treble over the weekend and the sense of inevitability surrounding that.

Football can be played in a number of different ways but the last decade has seen control top of the priority list for some of football’s geniuses.

Saints are looking to appoint Russell Martin, with an announcement reportedly finally expected this week, to bring in a very clear philosophy of ball.

The former Norwich City man is inspired by the likes of Man City, Barcelona and Spain and has said the teams he enjoyed playing with the most were similar in style.

Martin’s Swansea City averaged a staggering 65 per cent possession across 49 fixtures last campaign, in the Championship and both domestic cups.

Their highest recorded was 81 per cent in a 2-0 win over Welsh rivals Cardiff City at Liberty Stadium while only three times did they have less than 50 per cent.

As a manager, Martin has achieved it while playing several different starting formations including with both three-back defences and a traditional four.

It is difficult to draw definitive conclusions on whether Martin’s desires impact the overall result – but of their five highest possession totals, they won four and drew one.

Of their six lowest, they were beaten four times and scraped one-goal wins in the other two. The Swans finished 10th in the Championship last season.

Matt Grimes and Ben Cabango completed more passes than any other Championship player while defenders Nathan Wood and Ryan Manning were also in the top 10.

Grimes, however, ranks only at 36th for long passes completed and 46th for long passes attempted – to illustrate the difference.

Seven of the Championship’s top 10 for pass completion rate played for Swansea City. The average pass is short and simple and therefore lends to these stats.

Grimes – the midfielder-in-chief who drops back into a defensive line as part of his role – is the only Swansea player in the top 10 for progressive passes, but he is number one.

When it comes to personal preferences, I have always leaned more towards an aggressive, somewhat gung-ho and certainly more direct style.

The idea of death by a thousand passes – particularly when watching your team constantly give it away in your own box while trying to play out – is not my ideal.

It can feel like an elitist view; the idea that your team should persist with football pretty on the eye even when you can see the fin of your opponent circling above the water.

When I sit down and watch the big clubs, perhaps it was Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool I felt I could more closely identify with.

As someone who was not nearly good enough to play in a proper club system and has therefore not had a ‘real’ football education, perhaps that is some of the reason why.

‘Get stuck in’ and ‘get your head on it’ was always an easier way to play football for someone with my limited skill set. Still 0-0, lads.

Martin will feel he has work to do with whatever Saints squad he has left - of the 20 matches in which they had 50 per cent or more of the ball, they won three, drew three and lost the rest.

Of their seven lowest possession totals (ranging from 35 to 26 per cent), Saints won three, drew two and lost two. 

The irony is what we could have had with the sacked Nathan Jones is probably closer to that school of thought, but look how that went.

Despite a perceived level of control, only four teams – Reading, Blackpool and Wigan of which relegated  – conceded more goals than Martin’s Swansea did (64).

However, only three teams scored more than they did (68) and two of those (Burnley and Sheffield United) were promoted automatically.

At Saints, Martin will have better players at his disposal and that could lead to increased success. When it goes well, it is the best-looking football around.

More crucially – and Kyle Walker-Peters said this in no uncertain terms – it is important for Saints to get back to being known for some kind of style, whatever it is.

The St Mary’s side spent the entire remainder of the season in the post-Ralph Hasenhuttl hangover, first deciding to deviate completely from his identity and then desperately trying to get back.

Nobody is asking me, thankfully, but I am more than willing to suspend my usual propensity for a football that looks more like table tennis if Martin can succeed in pulling the whole club in one direction.

Sport Republic want to win the Championship and that may not be possible without a plan B, though.

Saints will be and are considered the favourites in most games in the second division and there will be a number of opponents happy to sit back and disrupt.

Against those opponents, you may have to be willing to park your principles and find another way to enter the box.

When an opponent is having success picking you off at the back, I want the team to have the licence to say ‘No, we are going long’.

Previously, at Swansea and MK Dons, this has not necessarily been the case. Similarly, though, do you want your manager to abandon his principles just because he has come to a ‘bigger’ club? Jones felt he did that.

It is going to be an interesting season and some of the St Mary’s faithful – not always overly patient, you would have to admit – might find it an adjustment.

Results, as always, will win out. If the former Scotland international and his staff can get Saints to win again, you will be hearing and reading a lot about ‘Martin-ball’.