Is Roberto Martinez the right manager for Everton?

Robert Martinez is set to hold talks with Everton about their vacant managerial position

Everton are set to open talks with departing Wigan boss Roberto Martinez over the vacant managerial position at Goodison Park.

The Spaniard told Wigan chairman Dave Whelan in a meeting yesterday that he would be leaving the club.

Leaving

Whelan decided to let the Spaniard leave, but any club wishing to employ Martinez will have to pay a compensation fee of £2million.

The Wigan chairman also confirmed that Everton counterpart Bill Kenwright had sought his permission to speak to Martinez.

Favourite

It now seems inevitable that Roberto Martinez will be the next Everton manager. The bookmakers, who are very rarely wrong, have virtually stopped taking bets on the 39-year-old succeeding David Moyes as the Toffee’s boss they are that confident that the Spaniard be given the job.

Split

The appointment of Roberto Martinez seems to have split the very vocal Everton supporters down the middle. Some are for the Spaniard getting the job and some against it. Whatever happens though the Everton supporters will have to get behind the new manager for the sake of the club.

Fans choice

The fans preferred choice of boss seems to be Porto boss Vitor Pereira, who is out-of-contract with the Portuguese club and has expressed an interest in managing in the Premier League. There has however been no indication from Pereira himself that he is interested in the Everton job.

Pereira has been a major success at Porto claiming consecutive Portuguese league titles. The 44-year-old is very much a student of the game and speaks fluent English. He almost sounds too good to be true.

One drawback to Everton hiring Pereira is his lack of Premier League experience. If he was approached about job though he would not be short of countryman and old friends to ask for advice, with former-Porto boss Andre Villas-Boas at Tottenham and Jose Mourinho set to return to the Premier League with Chelsea.

Everton chairman Bill Kenwright stated he would take the fans opinion into account and he should at least attempt to find out if Pereira is interested in the position. If he does not then he should not have even stated that he would listen to the fans.

Mixed emotions

Wigan fans enjoyed mixed emotions under Roberto Martinez. The Latics were involved in relegation dogfights for all four years of the Spaniard’s tenure. This season the club from Lancashire finally lost their top-flight status, but on the other hand won the FA Cup, the first piece of silverware in the clubs history.

Despite his clubs demotion to the second tier, 39-year-old Martinez is still rated as one of the best up-and-coming young bosses in the English game. His philosophy of playing attacking, passing football has attracted many plaudits.

The Spaniard is also regarded as one of the men behind creating the passing philosophy at former-club Swansea. Martinez is one of football’s thinkers and likes to study the game.

Experience

Martinez also has experience of managing in the Premier League, unlike David Moyes when the Scot arrived from Preston. Everton took a gamble on Moyes all those years ago. Why not take a gamble on Martinez.

Resources

Everton is without a doubt a far bigger club than Wigan, with a far longer history of both success and existence. The Merseysider’s will offer Martinez better resources to work with, despite the apparent lack of financial resources.

Everton may not have won trophies under David Moyes, but there is the potential to win trophies and qualify for Europe with the Toffees. The Toffee’s in the last decade have barely finished outside the top ten of the Premier League, despite being in financial trouble.

Money

Everton’s club finances may not be in the best of shape, but the Goodison cash coffers will be boosted by a bumper television deal this summer. Belgium international midfielder Marouane Fellaini is also likely to leave, with a £24million release clause in his contract.

That should leave the new Everton boss with a bit of money to play with this summer to strengthen an already very good team.

Better

Since David Moyes left, there has been some ludicrous claims flying around that all of a sudden Everton will fall apart without the Scotsman. That is utter rubbish. David Moyes has brought Everton forward leaps and bounds in the last ten years.

Life goes on and Moyes has left the Everton team in a far better position than how he found them. Whoever comes in will take over a very capable team and Everton will not become a bad team overnight.

Is Roberto Martinez the right manager for Everton?