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, rugby lea ...

and pundit. As a player, he was a defender, playing most of his footballing career for

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

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 is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

seasons before leaving for

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club, commonly referred to as Orient, is a professional association football club based in Leyton, Waltham Forest, London, England. The team compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. ...

in 1996. He moved into football management with Southend United in 1997. He was capped 17 times

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

during the 1980s, Martin represented them at the

1986 World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had ...

. He has since started a career in the media on radio station

talkSPORT Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

and also as a

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

TV football talk shows.

Club career

Born in

Walton, Liverpool Walton is an area of Liverpool, in Merseyside, England, north of Anfield (suburb), Anfield and east of Bootle and Orrell Park. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is largely residential, with a diverse population. Hist ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

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

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

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

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a Association football, football stadium in Walton, Liverpool, Walton, Liverpool, England, it was the home of Premier League club Everton F.C., Everton from 1892 until 2025. It is now the home of Everton F.C. (women), Everton's ...

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 association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

was followed the very next day by one for

, 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 (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

. 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. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

. 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 In promotion (marketing), promotion and advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a person's written or spoken statement extolling the virtue of a product (business), product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales pitc ...

. 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 Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

and Second Division winners medals in successive seasons,

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

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 Wick ...

against three different

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

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

Peter Beardsley Peter Andrew Beardsley (born 18 January 1961) is an English football coach and former footballer who played as a forward or midfielder. In 1987, he set a record transfer fee in the English game and represented his country 59 times between 1 ...

– in a

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

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 port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, 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 London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

neighbours

International career

Martin was given his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

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

against

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

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 the London Borou ...

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 Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national footbal ...

finals in Spain, but he was playing some of the finest football of his career when the next manager,

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English football player and coach. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich Town. ...

, included him in his squad for the 1986 edition in Mexico: he played in the victory over

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

, replacing the suspended

Terry Fenwick Terence William Fenwick (born 17 November 1959) is an English former football manager and player who played either as a centre-back or a full-back. During his playing career, he made a total of 455 appearances in the English Football League f ...

, but was dropped for the next game, the quarter-final defeat by

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

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

Managerial career

Martin managed Southend United for two years (1997- March 1999), during which the club was relegated to League One.

Media career

After retiring from management, he joined national radio station

, while also being a regular pundit on

TV football talk shows.

Personal life

Martin's sons,

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

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 Footballers from Bootle Footballers from Liverpool English men's footballers Men's 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 men's international footballers England men's B international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players English football managers Southend United F.C. managers English association football commentators