Upon his arrival in the June of 2013, Roberto Martínez’s energetic and enthusiastic aura breathed new life into a football club that had begun to rust and stagnate under David Moyes’s steady, yet unspectacular eleven year reign.
One of Roberto Martínez’s first promises in the Goodison Park press room was to get an underachieving side into the Champions League. Though he was much-maligned for these comments, he very nearly achieved this, in his first season.
Dubbed ‘Everloan’ by opposition fans, a team peppered with exciting loanee signings annihilated formerly unconquerable foes throughout the 2013/14 Premier League season, including a double over former manager David Moyes and reigning champions Manchester United for the first time since 1969.
Everton were seemingly able to tactically dismantle even the most astute managers, including a home decimation of Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal that was described as ‘tactically perfect’ by the beaming Everton manager.
Young talents such as local hero Ross Barkley, and Irish duo Seamus Coleman and James McCarthy were linked with big money moves to Europe’s elite, as well as Roberto Martínez being reportedly earmarked for the Barcelona job, yet Everton were able to keep hold of their prized possessions.
After narrowly missing out on a Champions League spot the prior season, Everton embarked on the 2014/15 campaign with the welcome ‘distraction’ of Thursday night Europa League football.
This season couldn’t have been more different. A fast waning Sylvain Distin and Tim Howard contributed to the tsunami of ten goals being conceded in only the first three games of the season, a Premier League record. Such was the story of the season, an unconvincing defence overplaying and getting caught in possession combined with an uncertain attack in which Ross Barkley was played out wide and experimented with in holding midfield roles, resulting in record £28m signing Romelu Lukaku being starved of goalscoring opportunities.
Roberto’s overly positive post-match interviews infuriatingly continued, only that those revered results of the season prior did not. An 11th place finish and an early exit from the Europa League led fans to grow sceptical of the man that had almost led their team to the promised land.
We are now nearing the end of the 2015/16 season, and the story very much remains the same, except that there are now no ‘European hangovers’ to blame. The only team with a worse defensive record than Everton is Aston Villa, a club rooted to the bottom of the Premier League. The current squad is one of the best in the club’s illustrious history and the inability to close out and win games must be put down to the manager and his tactics. That is exactly where the buck stops.
In wake of recent comments made by Leighton Baines on the evident lack of chemistry within the squad which he later apologised for, there is a tangible irony in Martínez’s response that Baines needs to ‘take responsibility’ for using the ‘wrong words’. Many Evertonians would argue that not taking responsibility for unacceptable losses and describing them as performances ‘full of character’ are the ‘wrong words’.
Roberto Martínez has done some great things to Everton Football Club. It’s a question of whether those good things outweigh the bad. He brought in the best player in Everton’s Premier League era in the shape of Belgian powerhouse Romelu Lukaku, blooded Ross Barkley and John Stones into the first team as well as masterminding the signings Muhamed Besic, James McCarthy, Gerard Deulofeu and Ramiro Funes Mori. Memories of that barnstorming first season will long live in the memory of many Evertonians.
On the other hand, Everton are on course for a second consecutive mid-table finish, probably resulting in the departure of talismanic Romelu Lukaku who most Everton fans have now accepted will seek greener pastures. And who would blame him. The manager’s stubbornness in continuing to select the ageing Tim Howard until recently despite terrible performances has been baffling. Everton’s formerly resilient defence has dilapidated and Martínez doesn’t seem to be doing anything to fix it.
As much as I admire his passion for Everton Football Club, it has become painfully evident that he has had his chance at Everton, and has blown it.
This Everton team is becoming more and more like the Wigan team that Roberto Martínez left in 2013. A team with an attractive playing style albeit a team regularly leaking goals and ultimately fighting relegation. That’s not what Evertonians want their club to become. Many forget that Martínez has now been a top flight manager for almost seven years and the trait of defensive frailty seems a perpetual one. By now not even an elusive FA Cup victory would be enough to change the Everton faithful’s mind, as we all know the FA Cup was Roberto’s parting gift to a relegated Wigan side who now reside in League One.
Now a club with boosted financial power, it’s difficult to see the reign of Roberto Martínez lasting beyond this season. Perhaps under Bill Kenwright alone, Roberto would have continued his tenure, but under ambitious new majority owner Farhad Moshiri, the future looks increasingly uncertain for the Spaniard.
A combination of explosive potential and talent and significantly larger transfer funds should be making Evertonians excited for the future, not dreading it. Everton needn’t play second best when it comes to managerial appointments. If Newcastle United can attract the likes of Rafael Benítez, why couldn’t Everton lure the likes of Manuel Pellegrini, André Villas Boas, Frank de Boer or José Mourinho to the hallowed turf of Goodison Park?
Ok, maybe José is a long shot but we can dream.
After becoming a cult figure in his first season on Merseyside, fans would adoringly chant about ‘Roberto’s dream’. It pains me to admit that the ever-decreasing frequency of this chant among the Goodison faithful is an apt indicator that Roberto’s dream is well and truly over and that Everton as a whole needs to wake up.
