Smalltime club: Wigan chief says Everton not big enough for Roberto Martinez

But if you read what Whelan actually says it doesn't quite match the headline, does it?

Yet another of those media types pedaling the same old story, of course the Mirror couldn't possibly have an agenda could it?

I hope we wipe the floor with all and sundry next season and remind them that this might not be a rich club but it is still a fairly big one as witnessed yesterday.

Agree about prem league status being preferable to FA Cup triumph (if you have to choose). But Everton too small for Martinez's ambitions. Why not let Marti speak for himself?

BTW, someone was schlepping a story about a Prem League chairman who saw one of his workers with one of his shoes falling apart. When he asked him, the guy said he was waiting till pay day to get them fixed. Said chairman took out a roll of £50s, took off the elastic band, and told him to use the band to fix the shoe till pay day.

If I were a betting man, I'd say it was Martinez' current boss. Partly because I know he still has factories in the Wigan area (he also co-owns a pie maker, of course). Oh, and partly because it's the tenth time I've heard tales of belittling one of his employees. Admittedly most of these tales seem to come from his own mouth, so could just be his own attempt at humour, but he does seem to fit a certain stereotype...

Same guy who told the media that Martinez had been offered a contract by Liverpool.

So, conclusion, a clown and a bull-shitter.

Man U never came out and counteracted this to be fair. I wonder if their fans would rather have him than The Glazers? To be fair to DW, he did deliver a new stadium, even if it is a "mid-grade stadium in a retail park". Er...

Secondly we act like a small club; in the 1980's would Kendall have seen a move to Man U as a step up, or would Sharpie have agitated for a move to Man U a la Rooney? That's because we were one of the 'big 5', and what has happened since then is that the people in control now (not just BK) are either practising managed deline or benign neglect.

IMHO Whelan's got it spot on, yes there will be a queue round the block to be the next manager as he will inherit a talented (but ageing) squad, but will the board match the ambitions of any manager to bring us back into the elite of English football-I think we all know the answer.

'Any takers, any takers, I have a bid from a small club, any big clubs out there willing to pay me more.... come on ladies and gentleman, a lovely manager here..... two careful owners, has a trophy to its name..... and only one bid from a small club...... no other takers.... no? This is a steal folks.... One last time everybody..... Can anyone give me more than a biscuit and a piece of cheese for this manger.... no? Going.... Going...... Gone! Sold to the soppy bloke with the hankie and the glasses in front of the cameras.'m

Does anyone know what he possible compo might look like?

Last season when John Henry flew Martinez out to Miami for discussions, Whelan was on 5Live every morning giving updates as to how discussions were progressing. That won't have gone down well at Anfield (or in Boston). I don't know whether Brenda was their 1st choice (especially after initially ruling himself out) but it looked to me like Whelan was deliberately knobbling Martinez' chances.

So if Martinez is shortlisted by Everton (and why shouldn't there be a shortlist? Why have just 1 candidate?) then prepare yourself for a daily diatribe from the man about what was said by Kenwright, how messed up we are financially etc. Nothing we won't already know ourselves, but still annoying.

I have always thought the damage was done at Everton during the late 80s. We have been run poorly for longer than the Kenwright era. We didn't invest in the ground the way we should have done. The Park End was and is a joke. At a time when Utd commercialised itself, we sat and did nothing, as did a lot of clubs. We had and still continue to have the wrong people at boardroom level. No investment and no business acumen have been the downfall of EFC for a number of years.

Matt 667

That is an old Only Fools and Horses joke. Rodney tries to make out he has no money and to prove it, he shows Del Boy that the sole of his shoe has started to come off. Del Boy gets a wad of Cash out, takes the band off and tells Rodney to put it over his shoe.

I have to say I have a soft spot for DW. Wonderful chairman who has turned his club from non-league to top of the pile with hardly any fan base to speak of. He built a new stadium and has given the club a great platform to be self sufficient. My only gripe with him is the way he talks about Martinez and the clubs he is linked with every summer. Every year it is the same story, last year he said this exact same thing about Liverpool and Villa. It is common knowledge that he turned the Liverpool job down because he would have to work under a Director of Football. I think he turned down Villa because he realised that he would be no better off there than he is at Wigan.

The Everton Job would be a big step up for him, it is also a job where he would have full control. Whether Wigan went down or not I don't think he would, or could turn us down.

On the flip side Martin Jol refused to rule himself out of the job yesterday..........now there is something to worry about

You are correct about the successive failures at board level - especially when you consider Everton were one of the original protagonists pushing for the breakaway. However, during his time at Everton (and not forgetting he was a director for some years before the TBH buy-out), BK has failed to capitalise on the opportunities the PL cash cow has presented. The ground question, our commercial performance - essentially off the field whilst DM has steadied things on the field. If the league performance does slip now DM is gone, he's up shit creek and he well knows it.

BTW, who is the Director of Football at LFC?

I know it used to be Damian Comolli, if that is how it is spelt.

This is an extract from an interview with Ian Ayre dated 18/04/13

Ayre has offered an insight into a Liverpool transfer policy which, although no longer employing a director of football, places Rodgers as part of a recruitment team rather than accepting the traditional managerial authority to buy and sell.
Since Rodgers joined the club, Dave Fallows has joined as head of recruitment and Barry Hunter as chief scout from Manchester City, while head of analysis Michael Edwards has become a central figure in assessing targets for owners Fenway Sports Group.

Ayre said he, Rodgers, Edwards and Fallows effectively created the director of football model between them.

"We have a head of analysis, a head of recruitment, a first-team manager, myself,” Ayre said. “All of those people are all inputting into a process that delivers what a director of football would deliver.

“What we believe, and we continue to follow, is you need many people involved in the process. That doesn’t mean somebody else is picking the team for Brendan but Brendan needs to set out with his team of people which positions we want to fill and what the key targets would be for that.

"He has a team of people that go out and do an inordinate amount of analysis work to establish who are the best players in that position.

“Despite what people think and read, it’s not a whole bunch of guys sitting behind a computer working out who we should buy. It’s a combination of old-school scouting and watching players – and that’s Brendan, his assistants, our scouts – with statistical analysis of players across Europe and the rest of the world.

"By bringing those two processes together you get a much more educated view of who you should and shouldn’t be buying and, perhaps as fundamentally, how much you should be paying and the structure to those contracts.

“I think we’ve had relatively good success since we deployed that ­methodology. We’re getting better all the time. We were very pleased with the most recent window in January with Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge.”

I hope that answers that question. I wasn't sure myself!!!

Personally because of my age and nearly 40k other reasons fortnightly there is no argument - we are and always will be one of the giants of english football.

But if evertonians don't believe it why on earth should Whelan and sadly perhaps the most talented young manager in the British game, Martinez, believe it?

It really is not an uncommon view outside the portals of Goodison.

I think that Fallows chap is the guy who handles the mechanics of signing players. It's changed loads in the last few years - I know from having worked with a football agent in the recent past. Instead ofa manager & CEO dealing with player, agent, and a term-sheet of 3-4 pages, you can be dealing with an agency/multiple agents, image rights etc. It makes sense to have a dedicated person responsible for this.

I know we're taking this off-topic, but the whole player analysis thing has gone nuts these last 2 years. Man City have a dedicated team - I think they actually make their data on player performance publicly available.

Maybe the way I worded it came out wrong, I wasn't suggesting you were a smart arse.

Most clubs seem to be going down that route nowadays don't they

Peace Man

If that is the extent of our ambition as a top 6 team we might as well all give up.

A northern cartoon chairman.

"I pulled meself up from me bootstraps" etc blah.

Young'uns might nor be familiar with Bradley Hardacre but my guess is two peas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmw2R10slH0

They say that we have overachieved because our wage bill is the 10th highest in the league I think. Wigan have a wage bill half the size of ours so finish about where they should. I think it is unfair to criticise him there.

With a higher wage bill and by the sounds of it, a bit of a transfer kitty I think he could do well

Feel free to ignore his FA cup win and remarkable Swansea revolution just in case giving credit where it's due brings you out in hives.

Of course you will now illuminate one and all with the name of the best young manager in British football replete with achievements and/or trophies.... on you go.

http://www.pbh2.com/sports/the-greatest-soccer-goal-ever/?utm_source=outbrainpaid&utm_medium=cpc

"I’m not degrading Everton in any way, shape or form - they’re a great club with great supporters - but is Everton regarded as one of the top European clubs? Well, unfortunately they’re not."

What's wrong with that. Fact is we are not a top club in Europe, but whether Martinez should be courted at that level is entirely anothe rmatter.

Firstly he sets up a FALSE premise - ie: that Martinez can/will only go to a top European club (stated as though it's some kind of fifa rule)

Then he says "Nothing against Everton, but they're not a top European club"

Well if you forget the second part (and you should) and analyse the first part - It's TOTAL nonsense (and therefore makes the second bit void).

The reality is that the 'top' European clubs are those regularly in the last 16 of the CL and I think I can safely say that none of them will be looking for the manager of a recently relegated PL side from a small Lancashire town.

Remember, it is ONLY Tory-boy who has been blabbing his nob-head views and until Martinez says 'I am not interested in Everton' we're still an option for him.

I like Martinez as a feller and admire his loyalty to Wigan, but unless they beat Arsenal in midweek, Martinez' chances of being a PL manager anytime soon (let alone a future top European manager) are limited in the extreme.

Everton FC are a stone in the shoe of those other clubs who cannot buy what we have, because it takes ordinary people and generations of them to create a club like ours.

Err. I'm agreeing with you here, as I don't think he would be courted by that level of club (but then I've been wrong before - Moyes to United).

"Well if you forget the second part (and you should)"
I disagree with you here here. We're not and have never been a top European Club. Heysel and BK's poor management have seen to that.

I'm just saying that I don't think his remarks are necessarily derogatory towards Everton, but more that he has a glorified opinion of Martinez and his suitors.

To this I would say what about Di Matteo the man hardly set the world alight before Chelsea but then did what Mourinho and many other previously failed to do and win the champions league, unfortunately it's not as easy as simply saying this person is shite because of their last 2/3 years. Also I think i'm right in saying that Wigans wage bill will be a fraction of Everton's, so if he was here although he wouldn't be able to pay significantly higher transfer fee's the wage max would probably be about double whilst also being able to hold onto the MAJORITY of his best players, instead of every year every player that does well leaving as they can't match the wages.

Personally Martinez isn't top of my list but I wouldn't be unhappy with his appointment and it would be nice to have a non-Brit who would utilise the foreign markets where just because they have two legs they are instantly worth £10mill+ (Henderson and Downing, haha)

Martinez is far too laid back and his teams play in the same carefree way.

You only have to look at their goals against record.

It is absolutely criminal.

For all I hate the Stoke style of play Pulis is a better manager than Martinez.

We need someone to come in and lift the club and players to a higher level not a "yes man" to the chairman.