Alvin Edward Martin (born 29 July 1958) is an English football manager, former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

and pundit. As a player, he was a defender, playing most of his footballing career for West Ham United he appeared in 598 games for them, scoring 34 goals. With the club for 21 years, and winning the 1980 FA Cup. He played in a number of

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

seasons before leaving for Leyton Orient in 1996. He moved into football management with Southend United in 1997. He was capped 17 times

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

during the 1980s, Martin represented them at the 1986 World Cup. He has since started a career in the media on radio station talkSPORT and also as a

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

TV football talk shows.

Club career

Born in Walton, Liverpool,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

, Martin played schools football for Bootle and Lancashire and was attached to

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wir ...

club Everton as a schoolboy, but left in 1974 after the

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a association football, football stadium in the Walton, Liverpool, Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area ...

club only offered him an apprenticeship on a part-time basis. An unsuccessful trial later that summer with

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

was followed the very next day by one for West Ham United, where he was awarded a contract as an apprentice 19 August 1974. He appeared in the FA Youth cup final of 1975 and signed as a professional on 29 July 1976. He did not make his first team debut until 18 March 1978 as a substitute against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...

. His final appearance was as an 88th-minute substitute on 5 May 1996 against

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

. Martin went on to amass nearly 600 first-team appearances for the Hammers in a successful 19-year professional career at Upton Park, in which he became one of only two players, along with

Billy Bonds William Arthur Bonds (born 17 September 1946) is a former professional footballer and manager, who is most often associated with West Ham United with whom he spent 27 years as player and manager. He played 799 first-team games for West Ham in a ...

, to be awarded two testimonials. The first was against Spurs on 21 August 1988 and the second against Chelsea on 11 November 1995. It was alongside Bonds in the centre of defence that Martin – nicknamed 'Stretch' – enjoyed his most rewarding years, winning the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

and

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

winners medals in successive seasons,

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – In ...

and 1981. Martin also achieved the rare feat of scoring a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three w ...

against three different

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East En ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

s – Martin Thomas, who was then injured, and outfield players Chris Hedworth and

Peter Beardsley Peter Andrew Beardsley MBE (born 18 January 1961) is an English football coach and former footballer who played as a forward or midfielder between 1979 and 1999. In 1987, he set a record transfer fee in the English game and represented his co ...

– in a

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

match in April 1986 which the Hammers won 8–1. This was among the most successful seasons the club ever saw, as it finished third in the top level, just four points behind champions

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, with the player contributing with 40 games and four goals. Martin remained loyal to West Ham despite their relegation from the top flight in 1989, and helped them gain promotion two years later. The club lasted just one season before again dropping down a level, only to bounce back at the first attempt. Martin, for decades the club's longest serving player, spent three more years with the team in the

before finally departing at the end of the 1995–96 season after 21 years service, aged 37. After leaving West Ham, Martin had a brief spell with

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the ...

neighbours Leyton Orient.

International career

Martin was given his first

cap by

Ron Greenwood Ronald Greenwood CBE (11 November 1921 – 9 February 2006) was an English football player and manager, best known for being manager of the English national football team from 1977 until 1982, as well as being manager of West Ham United for 1 ...

against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

in May 1981. Injury ruled him out of the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 ...

finals in Spain, but he was playing some of the finest football of his career when the next manager, Bobby Robson, included him in his squad for the 1986 edition in Mexico: he played in the victory over

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to t ...

, replacing the suspended Terry Fenwick, but was dropped for the next game, the quarter-final defeat by

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

's infamous 'Hand of God'; in total, he made 17 international appearances.

Managerial career

Martin managed Southend United for two years, during which the club was relegated to the League One.

Media career

After retiring from management, he joined national radio station talkSPORT, while also being a regular pundit on

TV football talk shows.

Personal life

Martin's sons,

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and Joe, are also footballers. The former is a

, whilst the latter is a defender.

Honours

;West Ham *

: 1979–80 ;Individual * PFA Team of the Year Second Division: 1980–81

References

External links

West Ham career stats
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Alvin 1958 births Living people Sportspeople from Bootle Footballers from Liverpool English footballers Association football defenders Premier League players Everton F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players English Football League players English Football League managers Leyton Orient F.C. players England international footballers England B international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players English football managers Southend United F.C. managers English association football commentators FA Cup Final players