I thought long and hard about this post, as I did not want to show obvious bias but the more I thought about it the more I felt convinced that this needed to be said. I mean no disrespect to Tony Pulis and Brendan Rogers and the achievements of both Stoke City and that lot in red across Stanley Park, but allow me to present to you the real 2013-14 Manager of the Year, Roberto Martinez.
Think back 12 months, David Moyes was still considered a good manager at that point (times change quick in football) but Martinez although guiding Wigan Athletic to winning the Cup had also seen that same Wigan team relegated, and was not an overwhelmingly popular choice amongst the Everton faithful. Bear in mind this came about around the same time that Moyes was made United manager, and that Jose Mourinho was named Chelsea boss.
Speaking as an Everton fan, as much as I am blinkered by the supporters goggles that we all have for our teams, I like to think that I am realistic about my team too, the finance situation at Everton is not great, and they are unlikely to be able to compete with United, City, and Chelsea but not many teams worldwide can. With the operating budget of many top flight teams in excess of Everton’s, Martinez seemed to be a little hamstrung from the start.
Despite the problems he was facing in that regard, Martinez is a principled football man and has a belief about the way the game should be played, and that way is not really familiar with that of Moyes. To instigate change in any organisation is not easy and takes time to bed in, true he bought a couple of his former Wigan players with him, but when the first 3 games of the season resulted in draws there was a little concern starting to grow in the crowd. Martinez, however stuck to his beliefs and continued to implement his system.
I said earlier time moves fast in Football, I believe the old adage is that a week is a long time in football, well how about a single hour. The whole season for Everton it can be argued hinged on one hour at the end of the August transfer window. Marouane Fellaini was sold to United, and then signings were announced of Romelu Lukaku (on loan), Gareth Barry and James McCarthy and then perhaps the biggest news to the club, that Leighton Baines would be staying at Goodison Park. The team began to grow in confidence and played football that hadn’t been rivaled at Goodison since the mid 1980’s. Everton went to United and won (as the season wore on this became a bit more expected) and followed that up in the same week with a late equaliser at Arsenal, two results back-to-back that even the most confident Blue was unlikely to have predicted at the time.
The team began to grow in confidence and Lukaku developed a scoring touch strangely missing in the World Cup so far, that saw the team release Nikica Jelavic a move perhaps highlighting the difference between Martinez and Moyes. With 6 games to go Everton were head to head with Arsenal in the race for the champions league, although eventually missing out in this quest, perhaps highlighting the need for more strength in depth as injuries meant some key players missed sizeable amounts of time. To take over a team and totally change it’s style and in the first year end up with the highest points tally in a decade and qualify for Europe is at least on par with Pulis and Rogers when you take in to account what expectations there were or perhaps were not at those clubs.
Another reason I nominate Martinez is the way he conducted himself with the 25th anniversary of Hillsbrough and the way in which he represented Everton Football club and arguably football in general earned him deserved respect within the game, to do that in your first year is asking a lot of an individual as you come to terms with the club and it’s history.
One further reason why Martinez should be England’s Manager of The Year, he has turned Baines into a left back that is rated highly enough throughout Europe that Roy Hodgson felt comfortable without Ashley Cole. He turned Phil Jagielka into a true international standard centre-back, but perhaps more importantly has given youngsters like Ross Barkley and John Stones the chance to shine and find their way into full England squads, also had produced form from Barry and Leon Osman that saw them unlucky to not be in the a World Cup squad. What other manager has done that in one season, Rogers was working with mainly established players Raheem Sterling aside for example.
Harry Redknapp has called for Martinez or Rogers to be the next England boss, thank you Harry, but as a Blue I would rather keep see him stay at Everton. So with that recognition from his peers as well, I can not give an actual trophy but the real Manager of the Year, is Roberto Martinez.
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