Wigan boss Roberto Martinez has managed to keep the club in Premier League against all odds for the last two seasons.
The affable Spaniard played his part in the clubs rise up the leagues as a player and he’s now playing his part in helping the club punch above their weight in the top flight.
Superb
Yesterday the Latic’s absolutely hammered Newcastle 4-0 at the DW Stadium. The victory was totally deserved as they ripped the Champions League hopefuls apart. The victory was achieved with an incredible verve and tempo.
All four goals were excellently taken by Victor Moses, Shaun Maloney and Franco Di Santo yesterday. A viewer of the game would have thought that it was Wigan that was going for the Champions League places yesterday and not Newcastle, they were that good.
Philosophy
Boss Roberto Martinez has a football philosophy very similar to that of Barcelona. He insists on his team playing attractive, passing football. The rookie hasn’t abandoned his beliefs even in the clubs fights against relegation.
The 38 year-old deserves credit for the fact that he has stuck to his beliefs and those beliefs have kept the club in the top flight. In truth Wigan haven’t looked like a Premier League at times in the past few seasons but Martinez has managed to keep the club afloat.
Shrewd
The young boss has kept Wigan in the Premier League courtesy of his shrewd dealing in the transfer market. Wigan have one of the smallest budgets in the English top flight. In fact they have smaller budgets than some teams in the Championship.
Martinez has taken a chance on some players and has been rewarded by those players. The latest player to repay his faith is Nigerian international striker Victor Moses. The youngster arrived from Crystal Palace in the 2010 January transfer window for £2.5million.
The winger has taken his time to settle but it looks like he has finally found his feet in the top flight. The former-England under-21 is now attracting interest from bigger clubs in the top flight and could be on the move this summer.
Martinez has also brought in the likes of unknown stars Mohamed Diame and Steve Gohouri, who have turned into mainstays of the Wigan side since their arrival.
Sales
Because of the lack of financial resources at the club Martinez has to be clever in the transfer market. The club really have to maximise their resources and sometimes have to sell their best players to survive.
Martinez and chairman Dave Whelan manage to get the best possible prices for their star players when they are sold and they really have to keep the team competitive.
Magnificent
Roberto Martinez turned down the chance to move to Aston Villa last summer and is highly rated. Wigan chairman Dave Whelan rates his manager very highly. Whelan told Sportsweek: “ He’s doing a magnificent job,”
“I’ve always said Roberto will go to one of the top clubs in Europe and when that time comes he will leave Wigan with my blessing. He’s just a brilliant manager and he will get one of the top jobs in Europe.
“I don’t want to lose Roberto but it is inevitable he will climb the ladder. We’ve not had one fan crying for his dismissal and every fan in Wigan has been behind Roberto. Hopefully now we can stay in the Premier League for another season.”
Martinez may move on in the near future but for now his priority is keeping the Latic’s in the top flight this season. With every victory they are moving closer and closer to completing the unlikely feat of staying in the Premier League.
Wigan’s destiny is in their own hands with just two games remaining against relegation rivals Blackburn and Wolves. The form that Wigan are in I wouldn’t bet against them surviving.
Roberto Martinez’s job is simply to keep Wigan in the Premier League. It looks like he could have performed yet another miracle in the North West completely against the odds. Whether he stays at Wigan for much longer remains to be seen.
As Wigan gain more respectable results Martinez’s reputation as a boss grows. Martinez will no doubt move onto bigger things in the future and unfortunately for the Latic’s his departure could spell the end of their top flight stay.
Will Wigan stay in the Premier League this season?
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