Everton board plan for Martinez return is madness
Another day in the soap opera that is Everton Football Club has revealed a staggeringly strange proposal by the club’s board.
It appears, according to media reports that Everton were proposing Roberto Martinez should return and take over as a part-time manager for the remainder of the season!?
What is going on at this club? How could anyone on the board think that this sort of idea is a reasonable and rational response to the myriad problems this team is experiencing.
First of all bringing back a manager who failed and left Everton just a few weeks after the current owner Farhad Moshiri took control, is completely the wrong strategy.
I’ve gone through the reasons why Martinez is simply not the right choice to take over a club in crisis, and one facing the real possibility of a relegation fight for the rest of the campaign without a considerable upturn in results.
He is not a coach renowned for his diligence in terms of defensive preparations, to put it midly, and his Blues sides were chronically inept at preventing goals and preserving leads. And, the idea has met with a very cold response from most Evertonians who the club need onside as much as possible after what has gone on over the past six months.
Given all that, to then float the concept of him coming back but only taking charge effectively part-time while he retained his position as Belgium boss, is beyond all understanding!
Fortunately, the Belgian FA appear to have stepped in to squash any chance of this move happening so perhaps they will save us from such a ridiculous scenario.
Other sources claim that Wayne Rooney would now be the frontrunner if a move for Martinez was a non-starter. It’s difficult to know for sure whether this would be a good idea.
I wrote about a year or so ago a speculative piece about Rooney maybe taking over at Goodison Park at some point in the future if he made a success of his managerial career at Derby and possibly other clubs. But, I didn’t expect such a scenario to be on the cards this quickly!
However, I’m coming round to thinking that it might be a viable option. Rooney is obviously an Evertonian (or at least he was) and while I know that some fans remember how he reacted when he left for Manchester United, I still think in his heart-of-hearts he is a Toffee.
Hopefully, that would get the majority of fans on board with the appointment and might also help galvanise the players too.
Rooney has also done a very competent job at a crisis-hit Derby so he’d be well prepared for what he’s coming into. He is certainly a footballing superstar with his playing record and he might well be able to attract top players to consider signing for the club.
As I said in my piece yesterday, there are other possibilities in the Championship, but maybe a move for Rooney is the more realistic as I can’t see this board contemplating a manager like Steve Cooper who doesn’t have any Premier League pedigree and no connection to the club.
So, is one option to seriously consider Rooney with Duncan Ferguson as his assitant? I personally think Ferguson is ultimately more suited to being a number two. Give him the job for Aston Villa next weekend, but might that be a sort of dream team duo in the dugout?