London Blue

He will be gone soon, if he is having to justify and make excuses in the press then its because he feels he has not been able to convince the board in private. I hope that the board will make an appointment soon, before the end of the season, and I hope it it Pellagrini. If not it will come at the end of the season. I do wonder if the board have held off any action this week due to the Hillsborough inquiry and not wanting to take any focus away from it, and rightly so.

Given Bill's respect for and admiration of Martinez I have no doubt he would have come out and given him the clubs total and unwavering backing. The fact he has not is I believe due to Morishi wanting to choose a new manager. On the Pellegrini front, I have a suspicion he may move to Arsenal, as I think Wenger may go.

The board have not come out and officially backed Martinez, they have offered him no support. He is going. I would hope that they are saying nothing till the Pelligrini or other deal has been done.

I know I was in a student inspired drunken haze in the mid 90s but I thought Bakayoko was decent for us?

He would be mad to turn down Celtic, and we equally mentally challenged to re-appoint him. Best of luck to him, just don't want him here.

This is the dilema and why I am against booing players. I would hate for players like Barkley to think the fans were against him, we are not. If we force players like him who love the club to leave then it really says something about the state our club is in. WE have to rally round the players without showing support for Martinez, the sooner he goes the better. The board must act on this.

Crikey, I think a period of calm reflection is needed first.

He has been one of the plus points this season, his performances have grown and I am no longer as nervous as I was when he started playing. I think he has the potential to be our No 1, but he needs competitive football so either stick with him or loan to champ or equivalent team.

Have a great day mate, do yourself a favor and don't look at the result till tomorrow!

Just sent some money over. Thanks for setting up a great site!

That's a damn good question.

If he did then he kept them well hidden! Don't get me wrong I am a Moyes fan, he picked us up when we were rock bottom and gave us our dignity back. We had some great times with him and he will go down as a very good manager for us. If we are honest we can remember at Moyes's not having the tactical nouse against the top teams, the poor substitutions, the playing favorites, the bewildering team selections. Above all that though is his attitude against the top teams that we could mot win against them. We want to be beyond that and alas Moyes never will be.

No he does not. To quote Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, Moyes is "Same dog, different fleas". Martinez cannot get a team to defend, Moyes cannot get a team to play fluid attacking football. With the squad and the money we will have we can have a chance at challenging for the top 4, so we need a top 4 manager, not a half way house.

I did say keep him till the end of the season, and see if he could turn it around, that he was close to doing something really good at Everton. Its a hard thing to realise that someone you believed in turned out not what you hoped for, expected or needed. Martinez golden era seems now nothing more than a cruel mirage that turned out to be Iron Pyrite. After this fiasco I now believe he has to go and before the FA Cup semifinal. We must have a manager who can give the players some confidence and belief. For me I would let either Ferguson or Unsworth manage till the end of the season. Martinez has to go not because we lost 4 - 0, its because the players had no confidence when we went out, had no belief and looked so disjointed. Its clear that he has lost the dressing room, because if you cant get an Everton Team to come out and fight and play as one for a derby then you have lost the dressing room. Its also because he clearly has lost the plot, how can he have a match squad with no substitute center backs in it? I don't even do that in Football Manager! He is a man in pain and suffering, out of his depth and we should do the only thing, the decent thing, end his suffering and ours, sack him in the morning.

Thats a big head.

Barkley, Gerry, Lukaku, Stones, Lennon have all stagnated under Martinez. While Yakubu, Naisy, Billy and Johnson all thrived under Moyes.

Team and manager under pressure.

I think he has to win the cup to stay, if he wins the cup it lifts the whole place, gets us into Europe and with the extra money and european football we can attract better players. If we don't win his reputation as someone who can't manage a larger club circa Mike Walker will abound.

I agree he has treated Mirallas abominably, and it has hurt the team. Cleverley is a good player, Osman was but is too old now to play regularly. Kone however is shit, unless his contract is up for renewal. Eto was human poison and definitely caused Mirallas to be bit of a "big time charley", which doesn't excuse Martinez's behaviour.

I would love Rafa here but some fans, not all but a sizable minority would never accept it and would jump on his back from day one. Rafa is a great coach and strategist and players love playing for him.

Coaches take their lead from the manager, implement their plans, follow their strategy. Dunc is a relatively inexperienced coach, and it would be difficult for him to challenge the manager. I want RM to stay, but if he had to go, then what the club needs is someone to bring some chemistry to unite players, give fans a figurehead to get behind for the remaining games. Dunc could do that, and do it well. Full time manager, no he doesn't have the experience or skill set. But its not going to happen, at least I hope not.

No, but it does help.

If we learnt how to cross a ball with any kind of accuracy we would be dangerous

If this is what the civilized boards of Toffeetalk is like, one can imagine what its like in the various camps in Goodison. If Martinez wins the cup it may be the catalyst for our revival, and he will argue its a vindication of his methods. If we lose he will be sacked and we will get a new manager. I hope for outcome 1, but its been an ugly journey. However as Nietzsche said "What does not kill us makes us stronger"

He nearly did.