Hafnia

You must stop using abstract soundbites to build a whole case. Being a football manager is massively political and you don't know what his long game is. Psychologically what he is doing is very smart and no different to what I would do. I worked with someone once who was not very cooperative, my tactic was to praise them for a very little thing they did... It bought them to the highlight that their effort was needed and by recognizing them they unknowingly were committed to providing more assistance. Martinez is no idiot, if he had any reservations about Bill he isn't going to air them... Bill loves to get his ego stroked and that's what Martinez is doing. In doing this Martinez is reaffirming "yes I will tow that party line, however the reason I am stating this is because a chairman needs to do x y z" By identifying that he is aware if the chairman's criticisms he is justvsaying "so far he's been fine with me, so that's as far as I'm prepared to comment" - he will well be prepared for any of Bills bullshit.

That's a major problem within football, people underestimated the challenge Wigan faced and ultimately inflated the challenge Everton faced. Take the super rich out the equation and Everton would be expected to finish roundabout where we did. Out of your Villas, Newcastles, etc we would be expected to finish just outside top 5 based on salary spend. What Martinez did at Wigan was mind boggling, he changed the football culture, cleared the decks of the higher paid players and got budget footballers playing elite level stuff. He achieved with style and purpose.

Anyone ever tried running 400m dribbling a ball? Absolutely knackers you out, teaches your legs to adapt a stride based on the football not on efficiency.

Gotta say that junuzaj is one player, will laugh my arse off when he does to them what Rooney did to us. Barca or Real will come knocking for him and will get him. Just enjoying watching an arrogant manager, and an arrogant set of fans get a dose of reality. Did anyone see Bobby Charlton give SAF a head shake? How much are they prepared to give Moyes? His post match interview blames referees??? They will probably win 3-0 at old Trafford but they are still shite.

He's just gonna ply his trade at the school of science, join the likes of Barkley, McCarthy, Coleman, and a few of the other youngsters we've got coming through and make a charge at top 4 - title contenders... If that's big enough for now? At a club that's the 4th most successful in England.

Joe the pie man was ace, and yes up till now, 95-96 was the best post title winning football we've seen. I'm just so sorry for the sub 23 year olds who cant remember and appreciate that 7-8th is good enough for Everton and that percentage football is acceptable to achieve this.

Royle took us from facing relegation to winning the fa cup, going into Europe and finishing 6th next season... He was on brink of big things before he fell out with the board. Point is, Moyes did a good thing 11 years ago and dined out on it for too long. Why when he moved on in such bad taste does he deserve gratitude?!

You would think that we never achieved similar but better under Joe Royle, for some reason his achievements are erased because Moyes finished best of the midtable teams repeatedly... For that he expected us to accept as a maximum. Thankfully myself and more than a few others demand more from an Everton manager, survival at times of adversity is an achievement, mediocrity when capable of much more is a failure.

Possibly the same regard as someone who threw 11 years back in your face as if it never counted for anything, have I missed something? Was he working for free? Were we meant to finish much lower than we did (based on salary he delivered exactly as projected). I'm pretty sure divorces don't work on the basis of "I know hubbies left me for a younger model and is trying to get custody of the kids,,, but hey the first few years of marriage were lovely, I think I'll be nice to him" He's made his bed, he can lie in it.

He's a squad player, can fill a gap and he's an honest pro. Lets not worry about him being a first choice regular he's like park, kuyt, etc.

I think you mean Moyes decided to cloud what he did for us - we didn't decide that he accept a job in January, run his contract down, go after our prized assets on the cheap and then insult us in the media. Shine the light, the man is being seen for what he is, a good to average middle club manager who sandbagged his way to a far better reputation than he deserved. He has very little regard for us so why should we for him?

I thought jelavic deserved a slap for his penalty, he hasn't been able to buy a goal and tries to take the Piss when knowing we were comfortable. I think the keeper would have more or less stated such. Was really pleased for him up to that point.

It takes ling enough for young midfielders from the Italian league to acclimatise to the pace of our game, I'm actually trying to think of one such midfielder who has, aquilani, veron, the guy from Roma who's At spurs. Not many do so.

Much love and strength to you Mike. You have real friends on here even if we do so in cyber land, but you are very much a real person and a good egg. Hope you kick it's arse. Anything you need and we are here as best we can to support you.

Mcaleny would be our next contender but for his leg break.

Great player, but at 33 is it to late in the day to transition into premier league?

Get it wrapped up and put heitinga on for McCarthy or Barry, try and give Vellios some game time etc.

Ok dunc, based on this comment being repeated... you may just need to explain it.... its gotta be good. ah now I see, yeah his press conference. TBH I see no problem with that side, Robles and Jelavic being included isn't going to be a "weakened" team. Should have enough!

I think Martinez will almost certainly have a striker lined up... Just interesting to see who.

Number of jobs in x amount of years doesnt necessarily indicate loyalty though, it indicates progress when starting at small clubs. I certainly think that by rejecting Liverpool and Villa he has a clear objective as to what model he wants to work with. Based on the same criteria I had no problem with Moyes going to united...I had a problem with how he did it and his disregard And disrespectful attitude when he did leave. Interesting article... http://app.tribalfootball.com/android.html?referrer=http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/man-utd-see-220m-wiped-share-value-under-moyes-4000142#article/tribalfootball-4000142

Fair point. I'll get a tenner sent.

Normally for most posters that is the case Dunc, however given that you have been keen to defend DM through thick and thin despite his shitty antics I pretty much knew there would be an undertone in there. I've said before, Everton is what I support, not a player, manager, or chairman. As a professional you set goals to achieve, and with due respect to Wigan and Swansea he achieved all he could and that was to revamp the footballing culture - the fa cup win, promotion or relegation were irrelevant... He put the wheels in motion and took small clubs to their max. If he takes Everton to our max then that means truly great things for our club. Would I begrudge him the next step up? No.

Kone had a release clause of £6m, we didn't faff about and try to buy Kone plus McCarthy for £12m... nor did we start telling the press that Wigan are holding their careers back by not selling them to us... Whelan is a businessman - he was the only person talking about the McCarthy bid... he was using sky and BBC as a means of exposing Everton's interest to seek any other suitors in a bidding war - stating the £10.5m bid wasn't enough, however £13m was.... Football is a business and as far as business goes Martinez was a loyal manager to Wigan when he risked his managerial reputation by staying on managing a club which would eventually be relegated rather than getting a nice 5 year deal on £70k a week at Villa or Liverpool - why would he do that? Because of his football beliefs and desire to see a job through. He took Swansea and Wigan as far as they could be taken - sure he could have tried to get wigan back up or do the last act for swansea and get the play off or championship promo that was inevitable after his work within the infrastructure of the club. The reality is that for Martinez his next chapter IMO is to reinstall a sleeping giant, once he does that why should he go to a United or Chelsea? You don't create a weapon to be used on yourself! The next step would be an international or Barca/Real manager.

I was gutted when he was looking odds on for Liverpool, he was on the flight back from Barbados and I just wanted to go up and tell him "do not manage Liverpool" like Steve says you cantvdeny that managing Liverpool is a huge job. My honest opinion... If Martinez was at Liverpool, they would be winning the league this season. Give us Suarez and we would go very close indeed.

Until they sort out this double punishment nonsense an outfield player will sooner have a goalie sent off and get a penalty opposed to just having a goal. I seen Oscars the other night and it was horrible cheating at it's worst.