An unsuccessful trial later that summer with Queens Park Rangers was followed the very next day by one for West Ham United, where he was awarded a contract as an apprentice 19 August 1974.

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, to be awarded two testimonials.

[4] It was alongside Bonds in the centre of defence that Martin – nicknamed 'Stretch'[3] – enjoyed his most rewarding years, winning the FA Cup and Second Division winners medals in successive seasons, 1980 and 1981.

Injury ruled him out of the 1982 FIFA World Cup 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,[7] replacing the suspended Terry Fenwick, but was dropped for the next game, the quarter-final defeat by Argentina's infamous 'Hand of God'; in total, he made 17 international appearances.

[8] After retiring from management, he joined national radio station talkSPORT, while also being a regular pundit on Sky Sports TV football talk shows.