For managers, speaking to the media at press conferences has always been a double-edged sword.
On the plus side, it’s a controllable environment where they can provide a regular place for the announcement of team news and the generic soundbite about their upcoming opponent.
“[Insert team name here] are a team loaded with quality and they have a terrific manager leading them. We’re meeting them in a rich vein of form / downturn in form (cross out as appropriate) and we’ll have to be at our very best to get anything out of the game.”
Simple, right? It gets the job done and gives those in attendance a nice quote to fill up their copy that can be chopped and changed as any manager sees fit.
Every once in a while though, a manager will come unstuck. Whether it’s a loaded question where there’s no easy out, a statement which can twisted to suit an agenda or just a day where the manager in question can’t be bothered with the repetitive nature of the beast, they’ll put their foot in it.
Roberto Martinez doesn’t do any of that though.
He’s as media savvy as they come and a part of the new managerial generation that knows how to get his point across and in the way he intends his words to be portrayed.
The problem however, comes with what he’s trying to get across. What he’s serving is constant positivity and the fans can only take so much in times of strife.
In the build up to a dead-rubber match with Bournemouth, Roberto Martinez’s job security has become the main story as there is huge contention from the natives of Goodison Park.
Protests are supposedly planned – to what scale is yet to be seen – over the quality on display for a team that should be contending for European places at the very least.
Yet when asked as to his knowledge of the planned furore, Martinez conceded that yes, he should be subjected to scrutiny but pleaded with the irate contingent to see a bigger picture.
I always encourage huge expectations and as a football club we have to drive to challenge for silverware and challenge for the top four.
When we’re not, scrutiny needs to be there. But it shouldn’t be scrutiny of the last two months or three months. It should be of three seasons, scrutiny about the team we’ve put together.
In an attempt to deflect focus off a dreadful couple of months, Martinez has opened himself to criticism of his whole body of work. Unfortunately, that body of work consists of:
- A near two full seasons on from an electric first season, Everton have won the same amount of games in the latest two campaigns as they did in their first.
- Roberto Martinez has also overseen Everton’s worst ever home record in their 138 year history with two games to spare.
- Under Martinez’s tenure, Everton have spent near £100m in the transfer market yet will finish below eighth for the second time in two years, a feat that Everton had avoided since an 11th place finish in 2005-2006.
Roberto Martinez needs to learn lessons from his own peers and appreciate that silence is golden when a clubs fanbase looks for blood.
Mauricio Pochettino used that to his advantage when taking over at an ambitious Southampton in 2013.
Saints fans had been furious with the decision to replace Nigel Adkins after he guided them back to the Premier League and Pochettino was well aware that he would be placed under strong scrutiny in his formative months.
Enter an amicable guard in the form of a translator.
Pochettino was subsequently allowed to hide from a vexed fan base with a translator to foggy his words, all the while being able to communicate with his players behind closed doors as he later admitted that he “never had a problem” with talking in English to his players.
It’s that lack of ‘street-smarts’ that Roberto Martinez has failed to learn which would have gone a long way with Evertonians some time ago.
It’s also never a wise decision to ask furious supporters to judge your actions when you’re actions are failing and have been for approaching two years.
They say actions speak louder than words but when all thats remaining are words that mean nothing, what’s left?
