Martin told ‘win the derby’
MALAURY MARTIN started his career on Millionaires’ Row at Monaco.
But the Hearts star reckons Ian Cathro is making Gorgie Road look just as slick.
Martin received a surreal welcome to Scottish football when blunder ref Andrew Dallas booked him for nothing during the Jam Tarts’ win over Motherwell. Fortunately, it didn’t put him off. Ahead of today’s Scottish Cup clash with Hibs, the former Monaco and Middlesbrough star insisted his first impressions of Scotland have instead been shaped by Hearts’ new head coach.
“The coach is top, the training has been top,” said the January arrival.
“Everything is programmed the way it should be. This is like Monaco, like Middlesbrough, like a top club. When you arrive on the pitch, everything is OK. The idea of the coach is clear, he knows where he wants to go and we have to make it.”
Martin, who signed a three-anda-half-year deal in January, is not fazed by the thought of making his Edinburgh derby bow today.
After a football upbringing like his, how could he be?
Born in the French city of Nice, into an OGC Nice-supporting family, the Hearts star was quickly spotted and scooped up as a kid by his hometown club. Then he was poached by Nice’s hated, megarich neighbours Monaco.
For Martin, then just 12 years old, it was a dream come true.
For some of his friends and neighbours, it was treason.
Now aged 28, the combative midfielder insists he relished the criticism that came his way as he broke into the Monaco first team.
And the Frenchman believes his tough exterior will stand him in good stead in his first-ever allEdinburgh clash this afternoon.
“Monaco and Nice are 20 minutes apart. I was born in Nice and played for Monaco,” said Martin. “I promise you it’s a big derby, just like here.”
His experiences have left him in no doubt as to the importance of today’s clash to fans on both sides of the Edinburgh divide.
He concluded: “The first day I was at Hearts, they told me: ‘Win the derby’.”