While Wednesday night brought in jubilation for Sam Allarydce, as his Sunderland side managed to avoid relegation, it was only added misery for the opposition manager Roberto Martinez. Sunderland beat Martinez’s side 3-0, inflicting on them their 6th defeat in the last 10 matches in the Premier League. A club which till three years ago was looking to play in the Champions League to finishing in the bottom half of the table for second season running was bound to have consequences and Roberto Martinez paid it with his job.
The rise and fall of Martinez
Martinez started his first season at the club with a lot of promise and finished 5th in the league, best tally of points the club had ever achieved, this made him an instant hero both within the club and in England but subsequently two bad seasons back to back even spending some serious amount of money including a record club transfer fee for Belgian striker Lukaku, as well as managing to retain the young players from being lured by the rivals, the results are anything but disappointing.
The cracks had started to appear in the second term only but this season it became simply unacceptable for the management to continue with Martinez.
Apart from the six defeats in the last 10 matches in the Premier League they have also been beaten by United in the FA cup semifinal as well and to put into perspective they have only managed to win seven of their last 30 fixtures and six of these wins have come against lower oppositions.
If the results were not it, Martinez’s delusional statements during post match conferences only made the fans more angry. At a time when the club was relinquishing on the 12th place he was talking about the intent of the club to be playing champions league ever since he has joined the club only managed to enrage the fans even more who started to come with banners of Martinez out to the stadium, and even had a plane flown over Goodison Park with a banner calling for Martinez’s head.
Future at Goodison Park
Ronald Koeman and Frank de Boer are bookies favorite to succeed Martinez.
But whoever joins the club will have to drastic steps to clear the mess left by him. Two seasons of failed attempt to achieve something has not only angered the fans but has also made the players restless who would like to look out for greener pastures. Young English center back John Stones who has been linked for the past two years may finally move out, Lukaku who had joined Everton with the desire to play in the Champions league may also be looking out for other clubs and there are already a number of suitors lining up. Not only the next manager will have to try and retain the star players will also have to consolidate on the exiting squad within a budget constraint as the club after 2 seasons of spending and no desirable results will look to tighten its purses. One can only bid Farewell to Martinez and hope the next manager can revive Everton and help it in achieving its Champions League ambition.