DAVID Martindale has partially attributed Livingston’s relegation from the Premiership two seasons ago to the off-field legal battles that he got embroiled in and predicted that “losing autonomy” at the Set Fare Stadium will help him to keep his side up in the top flight in the coming months.
Martindale, who led the West Lothian outfit to promotion out of the Championship via a dramatic play-off final victory over Ross County last term, was delighted when American businessman Calvin Ford finally completed his protracted takeover after months of behind-the-scenes wrangling back in May.
He felt that he was unable to devote the time that he needed to coaching before the change of ownership and is now hopeful that having Ford, the great-great-grandson of Ford Motor Company founder Henry, at the helm will enable him to focus solely on football in the coming months and secure survival.
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Speaking as he looked ahead to [[Livingston]]’s opening William Hill Premiership game of the new season against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park tomorrow, he said, “I’m still going to help out with other bits and bobs around the club. But I’m not bogged down in the middle of court cases, with being one of the main witnesses, like I was before.
“Going to your bed at night, I was constantly thinking about phone calls. You'd be on your way home, you'd be getting phone calls from your lawyers, you'd be opening up emails and speaking about stuff. That was a constant. Looking back, that was three-and-a-half, four years. It was so draining.
“I was trying to focus on the game, but you're constantly thinking about what if, what if, what if, what if with court cases. I just feel there's a wee bit of a chain been lifted around the neck of the football club now that all of that is done and dusted.
“With Calvin and a new board at the football club, it's such a better work environment. It's such a better place to be mentally. There’s always been a good culture within the building, but just mentally it's better.”
“Calvin coming in, a new board coming in, has allowed us to get a better infrastructure outside the footballing department, which has really helped the footballing department. Now we probably have the basic structure that we need going forward. We're in a good place.
“I think I got good at dealing with this and dealing with that. I’d compartmentalise it and store it away. Unfortunately, it was a lot of the stuff within the court cases I knew about because I was the one constant in the building. I was here pre, during and post so a lot of it fell to me.
“But I couldn't have been giving the best of myself as a manager. That definitely had a negative impact on the team. There were failings on my part as well, but you were keen to to do what's right for the football club.
“I've always done that. If we hadn’t done what was right for the football club over the last two or three years there wouldn't be a football club. So all those battles two or three years ago were well worth it. The club is in the best place it has ever been in my tenure and hopefully I can deliver the goods on the park.”
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Martindale has vowed to keep faith with the players who clinched promotion last season during the 2025/26 campaign – but he has strengthened his squad extensively during the summer with the help of Rice and he is optimistic the new acquisitions will help Livingston to avoid dropping straight back down to the second tier.
“One of the first conversations that I had with the board when I came in was about receiving help upstairs with recruitment,” he said. “We're probably still a good bit behind other clubs, but between myself and Chipper we'll get a lot more decisions right.
“Look at some of the bigger clubs over the years. Look at Man United and look at their recruitment. They have spent billions of pounds. So it's not always down to finance. It comes down to skill set, experience and eyes and that's what Chipper's got.”
