Every word Southampton's Martin said ahead of playoff final vs Leeds

Che Adams has been pictured in training, will he be involved?

RM: He will do, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's back. Ross Stewart's back as well. So it's only Stu Armstrong, Gavin Bazunu and Juan Larios, but they've all had long-term injuries.

So, yeah, we're really, really delighted to have Che back and have Ross back training properly as well, after he took a knock last week. So, yeah, exciting for us.

It's really great for Che because I think it probably would have been the easiest thing in the world for Che, being out of contract with the Euros just around the corner, to make himself unavailable.

But he's done everything he could to make himself available, and he's come through training really well these last few days. It's really difficult sometimes up here, a fine line between giving you guys every bit of information that they can help the opposition.

He had a chance at West Brom, but didn't quite make it, not through lack of trying. Now he's ready and available, which is great.

Have you been able to impart anything from how you had success in the playoff final as a player in 2015?

RM: I try not to talk about my career too much, it was really average. I accepted every feeling I had in that build-up and I really tried to find some enjoyment from feeling that. Because it's such a privilege to play in a game of this magnitude.

You can go your whole career as a player, not playing in a game like this, or as a manager. So I feel really grateful, again, to be in this position at 38 years old, at a club like this, to be leading a team out of Wembley.

So to accept every feeling you have. If someone wakes up and says, I don't feel nervous on the day of a game, then he's not honest, especially in a game like this. To feel it, to embrace it, and to try and embrace it together and accept that.

So the way we ask the players to play, there is a level of courage that requires. To accept the feelings that you have and accept early on, especially when there would be some mistakes, and to get through them together and now they're in a place where they're so brave. So I have no worry about them being vulnerable or being honest with each other about what they're feeling.

I woke up on the day feeling calm and I had done all week in the build-up to that. But I was still nervous. Still really emotional when I saw my family and the crowd in the build-up to the game. I had a calmness because of the work we did to build up to it.  I hope that our players will feel the same way.

And the joy you felt at the end?

RM: That was the best feeling, also I felt the relegation that we had the year before (at Norwich) so personally, it hurt so much. It affects your life in so many different ways when you take pride in what you're doing and you care. We have a lot of players that care and were part of that last season.

So they have such a chance to feel the complete opposite and to feel something really spectacular that they will remember forever and have feelings about. Because I still remember that day now.

Honestly, it was one of the best so I hope and I feel like it would be an even better feeling being on this side of the fence rather than playing. Even though it feels ten times worse not playing and not being on the pitch to control anything. But yeah, it'll be incredible.

Big games are won on small things, you have beaten Leeds twice this season, you've said that doesn't matter, but your players can also go out there knowing that they can beat the opposition.

RM: I won the final over not losing to the team twice. So it can also motivate the opposition for sure. So we have to make sure that we use that as an advantage and we actually make sure it is a positive for us and it is something that we can use in our favour. 

We have analysed both games and our recent games of the performances we've had in the same way as we always do and try and learn as much as we possibly can. 

Sorry to dampen the mood, VAR is obviously going to be used in the final. I wondered what you thought of that and how much you talked about it?

RM: I don't know how I feel about it really. You'll have to ask me afterwards. I watched the FA cup semi-final between Coventry and Manchester United a few weeks back and was going crazy when Coventry scored.

Not because I have a dislike for United or anything, but I really like the coaching staff at Coventry and we all love an underdog, right? So I was gutted for them. I thought, to be a part of that, to feel that elation and then to have that taken away from you is really, really difficult. So in a game this big, I understand it.

I just hope it doesn't take very long, because it takes too long sometimes. That's the biggest problem with VAR, it's not the issue of having it and it makes sense when so much is at stake. But sometimes to still be not clear on a decision and how long it takes is a bit problematic.

But I'm sure that will get ironed out and hopefully, there'll be no issues with it on Sunday. Let's hope we're not talking about it afterwards. Fingers crossed.

Is it not unfair that it's not used in the whole tournament from August to May and then it's used in one game?

RM: I don't make the (rules). Honestly, I don't have any real feelings about it. I guess we know that it's not going to come down to a mistake. I think being an official in a game this size, if you end up making a mistake that big then it can probably feel pretty bad.

But I don't know. Honestly, it's something we've discussed very quickly with the players and with each other. But outside of that, it's part and parcel of it now.

Has it altered the way you plan to defend at all?

I think we've had 50-plus games. We're doing things in a certain way, in our way. So I don't think we're going to change. Of course, we make players aware of certain bits when it comes to VAR this week. But no, we've gone too far doing things in a certain way and the lads have had such success with it that they now need to produce that again on the biggest stage.

Jack Stephens said earlier this week that you've got the occasion stuff out of the way at the start of the week. So has it been business as usual or are you ramping things up differently?

RM: No, no. I think a real awareness that the game is different. So not pretending it's normal and to embrace actually the occasion because, as I said, you might not ever get that opportunity again to be a winner at Wembley.

When the stakes are so high, what an incredible privilege and also responsibility. So to accept that as well. I feel prepared for it in the best way for us as a group of people and for the players as a group of people and then on the pitch as a group of players in the best way we possibly can.

Unfortunately, the managers and the coaches will have sleepless nights worrying we've missed something or maybe not given them enough. But that's the job and that is always there regardless of whether you're playing at Wembley or managing in non-league, I'm sure. 

It's over to the players when they step over the white line. The biggest fear then is that we don't stick to the detail and the occasion takes over. So we spoke about that as well. I've loved the preparation.

I've loved the guys' approach this week and how they are because they've remained themselves and they were training in the same way. I absolutely love the way they've trained and behaved with each other. I'll never take that for granted. Now they need to do it one more time on the pitch.

We've read articles and lots being made about your history at Norwich with Daniel Farke when he arrived. He's said how respectful it was at the time and you were both just professional about it. What's the reality?

RM: He came in after we played them at our place and we had a drink with his staff and us and it's always been very cordial and polite. Listen, this is football so it's never ever personal. We never had a personal problem.

I think people really wanted us to and they still want us to now because it's a nice story. He was a young manager at the time. I was an old player at the time that was very much hip and back giving up on me and he was honest with me and I think that's all you can ever ask for.

I really didn't like his decision at the time. I can't sit here and pretend that's the case. I was at a club I'd been at for a long time and I wanted to help and I wanted to play and contribute. It wasn't with his team because he had other ideas which is completely fine.

So I think when someone is honest with you you have to respect that whether you like what has been said or not. He was fine with me even during that. I went and trained with Gilly in the Under-23s.

Maybe that was meant to be because now Matt is my assistant manager and I love him and he's brilliant. Who knows if that was meant to be the right thing or not. So I don't hold any personal bitterness or resentment towards Daniel.

I have real respect for him as a coach and what he's done. His record at this league is incredible. His team is very, very good and it's going to be a very tough game on Sunday and I look forward to playing against him once again.

I'm sure win, lose or draw I will have a moment after with him and say well done on a brilliant season whichever way it ends. After dealing with relegation, and Leicester blew that apart and made it look really easy, but after dealing with what we've had to deal with both clubs I think it's a pretty good season on the whole.

You've played at Wembley for your country and you've played there for Norwich we've talked about. So is it different, the pitch? 

RM: I've had different experience when you're chasing England down at 3-0 down it's a very different experience to the playoff final I had there so yeah, I think Wembley is a place that is special and amazing if you're in the winning team.

If you go there with a really clear plan and confident in it Wembley can be an amazing place to play it is, it's the best it's what you dream of as a kid the atmosphere understanding what it means to the people in the crowd because at Wembley.

It is an absolute privilege to have played there and that will be an absolute honour and privilege to manage there but my best experience is winning there in the playoff final. The other two, they were good, my family remember them but not nowhere near in the same way or with the same feeling.

In the playoff final I felt like I could have played for another two hours against England I felt like I couldn't play after 60 minutes so yeah it's very different depending on the game.

Do you expect your players to be nervous?

RM: Yes, 100%. Every single player on the pitch will be nervous. Every single member of their family will be nervous. Every single member of the coaching staff will be nervous. If you're not nervous for such an occasion you're probably a bit of a dangerous person actually at some point.

Everyone will be nervous. How you handle the nerves, you pretend they're not there or you actually embrace them and use them and use them to your advantage. I think it's really important to manage those nerves.

I don't like the word but the pressure you will feel and the responsibility you will feel so every player will be nervous. I'll be nervous. Daniel will be nervous. But I love that feeling and I hope I have that feeling for a very long time to come. 

I think whenever you want something so badly or like something worth having is always there. It has to be a bit of a pain to endure and a bit of tension a bit of anxiety, a bit of nerves but our players have had to deal with that from the very start of the season.

When I'm coming in here and telling them you're going to take the ball in this area and these guys are going to be steaming down at you trying to hunt you and take the ball and the crowd are going to be baying for blood away from home and you're making these passes and they're going to be up and you manage the temperature so the players have handled them nerves incredibly well from day one.

You've come a long way in a relatively short space of time, is this the biggest game of your managerial career?

RM: Yeah yeah by far yeah yeah no doubt. I felt yeah yeah huge. I think the other games I've had where I felt how much it means to people were the derbies at Swansea. We had a great record in them because we tried to embrace that the privilege of being in that position.

Being able to give people memories which I'll be grateful for forever. We have a lot of people coming from Swansea on Sunday which means a lot to me as well about the feeling we had and the connection we had with those people and we worked with.

I hope we can have another moment with them, albeit in a different way. It's huge, I'm not going to pretend it's not. It is and it will be and everyone around me knows that and we have a chance to to have a really special and brilliant moment.

Have you practiced penalties?

RM: We've spoke about it we've prepared for it as much as we possibly can. We've given them some stats around it and then spoke about the feeling around it. We have tried to prepare ourselves as much as we can.

We'll all cross our fingers and pray that it doesn't get that far. I think every professional footballer in the world can take penalty I think that's about the skill to execute it under immense pressure and immense fatigue.

That comes down to it it's purely psychological. It has to be. We'll be as ready as we can be for them and if they come then I'll really trust that we have the players to carry that out.

Would you rather go up via the playoffs or automatically?

RM: Well, you get a longer break the other way. I'm pretty sure they'll all be in Vegas and celebrating and having a party, whilst we've been training. So on that front, no but to win at Wembley, to walk up the steps as a player is incredible.

Honestly, it's the best and I did do it both ways. I don't want to play down one or the other but to do it at Wembley you dream of playing there as a kid. The day and an occasion is so big and your whole season comes down to one game.

How has the relationship with the fans grown this season?

RM: The best thing is seeing the team with such a clear way of doing things such a brave way of doing things and the way the fans have reacted to that, I said from day one there was going to be some bumpy moments.

There has been but there's also been some really spectacular and beautiful moments and. We have a chance to have another one together on Sunday. It's a brilliant football club, with brilliant people and even the way the staff have been with us and accepted us and the players.

I'll be forever grateful for that we lose or we can't draw on Sunday win or lose I'll be forever grateful for that so I hope yeah if we do do it it'll be another step in building that and building that connection and yeah hopefully we can keep building 

When the season ultimately comes down to one game I'm keen to get an insight how you rationalise that because it's a big moment for your career as well as the football club?

RM: I think externally the work we've done will be defined by the outcome, it always is in football. But for us, I don't think it will be. We'll want to get there we'll want to do it now but I don't think if we don't have the right result on Sunday, it means that we have ultimately we failed in the goal of getting to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

There's so much stuff to then be positive about and to really for us to look forward to and for us to learn from and the same for the players really so it's such a fine line and such a fine margin between failure and success. Hopefully, we are successful on Sunday. Hopefully, we will achieve what we want to achieve.

If it doesn't happen in the way we want it to on Sunday, to then try and manage that in the same way I think and to treat it treat it the same way so it's going to be hard because it will be some serious emotion over the next few days after that game. That will be the case whether you win or lose.

Then to step back after and go, actually, this worked really well this didn't. I'm really proud of everyone and what they've done this season. The players really step to the pitch with the flow they've been in the last couple of weeks then we can have a really special moment.

Do you look around the changing room and see a real togetherness? 

RM: Yeah, I see a group of young men that are really together they really enjoy being together they enjoy their work they're proud of what they do they believe in what they do. Honestly, watching some of them from the start of the season to now is the best.

As a coach, as a leader in the same way a teacher would or the same way as a parent, to watch someone who's under your care grow and do certain things that they maybe weren't willing to do or couldn't do so well at the start of the season.

I hope winning on Sunday means we can keep as many of them together as possible and to keep growing that and that's like for me is such a big motivation.

What's your message to supporters?

RM: Whether it goes the way you want straight away or if you have to stick with it yeah - they were amazing. To be fair, they've been brilliant this season with such a change in playing style and with being back in the championship.

There has been a big turnover of players, a new manager and new staff. They've been amazing and on Friday they made such a difference against West Brom. Honestly, it was incredible to be involved in.

They have to go one more time in the same way the players do in the same way that we do. They do make a difference and the players will feel their energy for sure. It's a final at Wembley there may be times when we have to suffer a little bit as a team.

We're going to need them more than ever. I hope there will be some really beautiful spectacular moments for them as well. My son said to me, 'Dad, I'm going to cry either way aren't I. If we win I'm going to cry and if we lose I'm going to cry.'

I said yeah, I'll be with you don't worry about it. The supporters will feel it all that's why you support your team and you love your club. I don't need to send them a message but I'm grateful for how they've been for us this season. I'm convinced they'll do the same again.