Roberto Martinez: ‘The Fall Guy’.

One point I would like to make is that Roberto Martinez is nothing but a bit of a ‘fall guy’. Why?

Well, look at the last few seasons, since we got promoted.

2005- we came up, with a strong, battling side. One that never gave up and had great self belief. We did great in that first season.And at the end of that season, the ‘rot’ started. Jimmy Bullard left, for whatever the REAL reason was. (I don’t buy into the ‘moving nearer to family’ excuse, and have heard other tales which I don’t want to go into on here)
And Jason Roberts was allowed to leave, through sheer frugality/tightness by Whelan. Graham Kavanagh was also allowed to leave, and Chimbonda WANTED to leave. So straight away, we’d lost our main striker, midfield playmaker, and midfield ‘enforcer’, as well as possibly our best ever right back.

No wonder we struggled in our second season!

And that second season was totally different. We brought players in on the cheap, like Skoko, Unsworth, etc. We walked a tightrope, and escaped on goal different. We were VERY lucky. Jewell resigned, which wasn’t really a shock, and Hutchings took over, with my mate who followed Bradford, when living up there, warned me “he’s a crap manager”, as he had been second in charge and taken the reigns up there.

But we started the THIRD season quite well. We brought in Melchiot, Bramble, and Sibierski. Experienced signings. Then we slumped, and it was abysmal. Hutchings went and Bruce came in and steadied the ship. He also moved to bring in players such as Wilson Palacios and Maynor Figueroa, though most of the seasdon, we had Kilbane at left back, as Baines had gone to Everton.

The FOURTH season came and we were quite hopeful. Bruce had assembled a strong side, with a solid defence, and we also recruited Lee Cattermole who looked like being a solid midfield kingpin, though he had spells out through injury and suspension. And we had Amr Zaki who started like a house on fire, knocking goals in. Palacios was absolutely brilliant, as was Valencia, and in Heskey up front, we had a really strong, experienced international forward. Ok, he didn’t score many, but he created space for others. then January came, and in the window, we lost Palacios and Heskey. We brought in loanees like Mido and Moreno, who were garbage. And Zaki had gone off the boil. Truly, the last few weeks of the season saw us in relegation form, with Bruce repeatedly saying “i’ve been unable to motivate the players”. I genuinely believe that Sunderland had already tapped him up, and it was no surprise when he jumped ship in the summer. And Valencia went to United.

For our FIFTH season, in came Roberto, and he started to assemble his side, for me, he was building it around Cattermole. And then on the eve of the season, he jumped ship to Sunderland, totally blowing apart his team plans. In the summer, we lost Melchiot, Scharner, and Bramble, again to Sunderland.

I’ll not go into this season, but my point is that over the past 6 seasons, our quality of squad has declined more and more. It’s got younger, definitely, but perhaps not experienced enough. Definitely not.

Fact is that we have sold that much quality and let it go, over the past few seasons, and replaced them with youth, and cheap options. ( I.E. Gohouri, Caldwell’s, Figueroa, etc) and it has finally caught up with us this season. It was always going to. Roberto Martinez is, in many ways, unlucky that he is in charge of the team at this point. Though his comments in interviews do not help him, when he says we have a strong squad, etc. No. It’s a squad that has plenty of young ‘potential’, but whether or not those players will fulfil their potential WITH Latics, is debatable, when we go down.

And rightly, or wrongly, the manager is getting slated. But Roberto Martinez is our manager, because nobody else would have taken, or would take the job on. Ok, somebody from a smaller, lower league side, perhaps. But none of these names that people keep dragging out. Martin O’Neill? Left Villa because of lack of funds. Sam Allardyce? Insists he’s a Premiership manager and declined the West Brom job, before he was actually approached, as he obviously feels they may go down. Who else is there? Chris Hughton? He’s got less experience than Martinez! Talk about ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’.

Martinez has got the job….because he was the only person who would take on the job, with Whelan’s constraints and budgets. That said, it’s interestin what would have happened had someone else had the job these past two seasons, somebody who had no links with the club. But Whelan knows nobody else would take the job, and that’s why he hasn’t sacked, nor won’t sack Martinez.

I think Whelan is biding his time in the hope that between now and the end of Martinez’ 3 year contract, which is the summer of 2012, he’ll have sold his interest in the club, and will therefore not have to make another managerial appointment….one that he would struggle to make. I’m almost sure of it.