Read Everton got the chance to talk to ESPN writer, Football Weekly regular and thesetpieces editor, Iain Macintosh.
Martinez, the youngsters and Football Manager were all discussed, and it’s an interesting little read if I do say so myself.
Enjoy.
1.What have you made of Everton’s start to the season?
It was a bit of a slow start, which didn’t help with the frustration from last year, but they seem to be finding their stride now.
I think when you have a manager like Roberto Martinez, someone who wants to lay down foundations, you usually find the major benefits come three or four years into the tenure.
There’s a swagger about Everton at times, something they lacked under David Moyes. Unfortunately, of course, it’s come at the cost of the solidity of the Moyes era. But it’s certainly more fun to watch.
2. Romelu Lukaku, Ross Barkley, Gerard Deulofeu, John Stones. The youthful quartet are really catching the eye with their impressive, enthusing displays.
Along with the likes of Brendan Galloway, Tyias Browning and Muhamed Besic, how highly do you rate Everton’s youngsters? Is it the best batch in world football?
They’re very proud of their academy at Everton, and rightly so. The facilities there are outstanding, it feels like an inspiring place to come to work. But that’s allied to a sound scouting structure as well.
Everton picked up Stones for a pittance years ago and now they could get £45m for him. But even with the facilities and the scouting, you still need the development. You still need to be bold enough to actually play these kids. Moyes and Martinez have that boldness in common.
3. What would constitute a successful season for the Blues? One or two Champions League spots could be up for grabs and the 20-year wait for a trophy is getting a tad ridiculous now.
If they haven’t got the finances of the big clubs, they can’t compete with the big clubs. Sadly, football is as simple as that now. With good management, good players, good coaches and good luck, they *might* break into the top four. But when you look at the resources of City, Chelsea, United and Arsenal, you can see why it’s so hard to get there.
4. Thoughts on Roberto Martinez? He seems to polarise Evertonians. What do you think he can achieve at Goodison Park and in his career as a whole?
I like him. He’s very intelligent, he’s obsessive about football and he believes that things should be done a certain way. I don’t always agree with that way, I think sometimes they could be a little more pragmatic, but you have to salute his principles. Everton play good football, I’d be happy with that if I was paying for a ticket. I’ve always found Everton a very friendly club. There’s a lot to like about them.
5. You are the manager of Everton in another virtual, infuriatingly hilarious realm. Please tell us about your Everton Championship Manager escapade.
It’s a disaster. I wanted to do a CM01/02 story, but I didn’t want it to be me buying Cherno Samba, Mike Duff, Mark Kerr etc etc, because that’s boring. Then I remembered that Everton start the game bankrupt and are bought out in the first six months. That seemed perfect. Enough time for the AI to buy up the wonderkids and then enough backing to provide a decent test of my abilities.
But the takeover never came. We’re still bankrupt, I can’t pay more than £500k for a player, I can’t say no to any reasonable offers, the team gets worse every week and blocks of the stadium keep getting shut down, so we’re down to a 26k capacity Goodison Park. It’s the hardest game I’ve ever played.
6. As well as the classic Championship Manager, you tweeted a picture of your recent Football Manager 2016 save. Taking the helm of Everton again! How’s that going?
It lasted five minutes, I’m afraid. I took over in the middle of the season and I started to play, but it didn’t feel right. The more I picked apart Martinez’s team, the more I wished I’d just started at the beginning of the game with them. If you start a game unemployed and then land a job after six months of pressing continue, it can feel like that sometimes. Like the game has got away from you before you’ve even started.
Right now, I’ve got two failed games with Berwick Rangers on my CV and that’s it. Though I did play a pre-season with WBA the other day because I was covering them for the first time this season and I wanted to familiarise myself with the squad. See, it’s not playing. It’s work. That’s what I tell my wife anyway.
7. Thanks for your time, Iain. Apart from playing virtual football games and picking a hilarious name for your cat, what exactly do you do and where can people find your work?
You can find me on ESPNFC talking about real football and you can find the CM/FM stuff on thesetpieces.com
