Ticking the Boxes

Some balanced, considered sentiments re: Perreira & Rangnick which I agree with wholeheartedly. On the balance of things, I too am getting a positive feeling in my gut and am looking forward to the new season immensely!

On an aside, did anyone hear Kenwright mention 'a player with a buyout clause' in his press conference unveiling the new man? So can we assume that Fellaini DOES in fact have a 24m pound release clause? Why is Bill even mentioning that? Is he touting him to raise funds and get a high earner off the wage bill?

Answers on a postcard :)

In terms of the other candidates I have to admit that I didn't know enough about them overall to say if they were better or worse than Martinez. I know their basic C.V.s from reading reports over the last couple of weeks and their league titles and CL experience did seem a more attractive option on paper.

People will say that the whole thing was drawn out. It is still only June 6th, there is still a full month before pre-season. You would think that Martinez is experienced enough in the way of how clubs operate to get a lot of what he needs to get done between now and pre-season.

As mercenary as it sounds, it may suit the club in a way that he has just come from a relegated Wigan. He will know their better players and if they want away, he may get first refusal on them.

I hope he retains the bulk of the backroom staff (that don't get the call to go to OT). Whilst we were hard to beat in the main under Moyes, you felt we drew too many games (certainly last season) and seldom were capable of the "important" wins. I agree that Martinez was probably the stand-out candidate from the list, largely for the reasons you mention. Now keen to see how he shapes the back room team, and the first team prior to the new season.

I think the next 24 months may well be a transitional period for Everton, with some of the older players moving on, and Martinez developing his ideas, and bringing his players in.

He inherits a much stronger squad here, so I hope he's an assertive tactician who gets us on the front foot, wins at Anfield, and treats the League Cup as a winnable concept, rather than a distraction.

Oh, and Champions League: Yes please..be as creative as you like, Bob..

The money for a Martinez's new signings is likely to be dependent on selling Fellaini, I would imagine. That wouldn't distress me too much, but the question is: who would buy? Fellaini is a very particular type of player and it's hard to see him fitting in at another Premiership club, and the big fella seems to want to stay in England. We shall see...

Excellent article, chimes exactly with 'gut'.

You make a superb point about Latin American players and in general the different world within which a Pereira or Bielsa work in.

That said, you'd hope with Martinez european connections he can source similar talent and he has also improved players from our islands too.

The best thing I can say is that I'm really looking forward to the changes and praying that we don't become vulnerable to getting slaughtered when form dips, as it inevitably does.

Positive and looking forward to the first games. Excited to see, hopefully, a change in our style of play.

A change does people good sometimes. Staleness creeps in and stagnation can follow.

Looking forward to good things at Everton.

Feeling quite confident, of nothing in particular , but as I said excited and looking forward to see how things pan out.

So I hope that either Stubbs or Weir will be part of the first team set up,and hopefully that will help with the defensive duties of the team.

I was swayed towards Perreira initially (gut instinct) and away from an internal promotion.

Personally, despite his loquacious style, I think BK went about things in the right manner. Nobody knows who was interviewed and who wasn't.

All in all, feeling very positive now. I think I'll stop watching the rumour mill of transfer speculation and keep my mood / blood pressure on an even keel for the summer.

A full pre-season for RM with a prestigious tournament coming up. Like you, I can't wait for the big kick-off. As usual, I'll be expecting us to stuff all and sundry, week in and week out. In fact, I'm even starting to feel sorry for the other teams in the Prem this coming season based on the simple fact that they're not EFC.

Villa started to cut their wage bill last summer and look how close they came to the drop this season, and they started with a better squad than Martinez inherited at Wigan.

Also try to imagine how the other teams who finished in the bottom half this season would fare trying to cut out 1 in 5 of their first team squads net wage over the next year or two. Thats Norwich, Fulham, Stoke, Southampton, Newcastle and Sunderland, I very much doubt they'd manage four more season in the PL and a trophy whilst playing good football.

I have had that excited gut feeling for the last few days now too.

Bring on next season!!!

Pros: Premier League knowledge/know-how, more adventurous footy, development/faith in youth, success in transfers (apart from Boselli/Scotland), scouting system with backroom staff (Spanish, South American links) – we need a couple of cultured football players, good all-round fella, top to bottom manager, positive/ambitious.

Cons: relegation, defensive record, lack of development of Wigan over 4 years, too nice a bloke, losing too many of the EFC back room staff.

I do hope the points RM made about continuing 'solid work', 'magnificent level', 'winning mentality', 'small tweaks here and there'. I hope this means he will combine the Moyes defence-first ethos already installed in the team with his own attacking footy; a mix of the two could be very rewarding for us.

Overall, Happy. :-)

I agree Martinez is the 'safest' of the choices available. OK this means he isn't as exciting as Pereira or Rangnick but he isn't risky either - being a safe choice isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The big pluses are his commitment to open, attacking football (which we saw more of in the last few seasons under DM, but not consistently enough) and his and his excellent understand of modern management (building on Everton's already cutting edge use of data). The big negative is the question mark is over his defensive record as a coach but he inherits a very strong defensive set-up - both coaches and players - so hopefully will learn from this.

Choosing a manager isn't an exact science and with that in mind, I think the arguments for selecting him were as strong as the arguments for selecting anyone else who was available (nb: and who was prepared to come and who we could afford).

Could it all go sideways?

Of course it could, absolutely, but with the managers available to Everton, there would be no guarantees with any of them (or with ANY manager for that matter).

My only regret (re the announcement) was big mouth informing the world Martinez said he would get us into the CL.

This morning I was in the news-agent (for my Boxing News and Viz) and on the back of The Mirror, saw a pic of Kenwright and Martinez with the headline "Champions League, you're havin' a laugh"

I shuddered and thought about the level of stupidity and vanity that would make a chairman blurt out such a thing at a managers appointment press conference.

What a fucking...... balloon!

Is he REALLY unaware of how the British media works?

Did/does he think this will be forgotten?

Not a hope.

For Martinez, as well as for all Evertonians, I hope we have a good season, because if not, I guarantee this quote will be used by one and all as a stick to beat him.

In fact it seems, after one day, it may already have started.

Eugene – take the point about the CL, but how many times on here have we heard posters talk about the lack of ambition under the previous regime? With a little more decent defending of leads last season we may not have been far away.

Good on him in my eyes.

I remain concerned about Martinez's record as a manager but excited by the prospect of a new dawn.

There is no doubt in my mind that Moyes had gone stale and worn down by the lack of support from a pathetic board and CE over the past two seasons and we needed an injection of enthusiasm so on that front this is a real positive move.

As regards Fellaini, I fear his move was already lined up in January when we approached Fer so I expect that may be on again.

Much as I love Fellaini and his goals, I do think he has defensive lapses in concentration that cost us so I wouldn't be so averse to a change as long as the replacement is quality – and I don't consider McCarthy or any other Wigan players anywhere near the class we need.

However, our main problem is to find that elusive 20-30 goals a season striker within our budget – and that for me is the biggest threat/opportunity we have.

It's a far cry from the days when a new Everton manager would be expected to win the league and many of us too young to know different at the time believed that's what they would do only to be disappointed by their ultimate failure. If RM doesn't manage to get CL or win a trophy I hope that he leaves a legacy of Everton being known for good football played in the correct manner. Also I hope that the skills of the youth players are not ignored and are worked on by his staff. Watching the England U21's perform last night was a sad reflection of how our game is suffering from too many foreign imports and a lack of forward thinking by coaches at all levels of the game.

I still think there is room for improvement from all of our players even the senior ones in the squad, especially with regards to control and passing of the football, being athletic and disciplined will take you so far but you really need to hone the skills of the players available to you to get improved results. I don't want tika-taka football with no end product and like many don't want to see us go all out attack a balance has to be struck and that will be the most difficult task that RM has to find a solution to.

The press conference was shambolic. Surely BK could have taken a moment to think about what he'd say before opening his mouth. And his constant references to Man Utd's manager was embarrassing.

IKWW. IBWT.

Was BK deliberately damaging? Wouldn't put it past him.
The door will always be open for Moyes.

Regarding how the media works, it was a press conference and RM was always going to be challenged on what his plans were. It's a standard question.

Based on the fact that we finished 6th last season, what would the reaction have been on here if he'd have stated "top 10 will do". There'd have been uproar / accusations of lack of ambition. Bland comments regarding "building on success of DM" – similar same old, same old reactions.

Most of us weren't that sad to see DM leave because he'd taken us as far as he could. The prospect of 6th wasn't that exciting.

Where do you go from 6th?

I'm glad he's looking up rather than down.

What the media / kopites and TS gobshites etc think – personally couldn't give a flying you-know-what.

Let's control what we do and screw the rest.

As opposed to 10 years ago when the premiership was poor and the national team was even poorer? The problem is a grass roots issue. The rest of the continent has kicked on and evolved their games into what is almost tantamount to a different sport. As soon as a child is capable of walking in Britain we throw them onto full sized mud ridden pitches instead of building up their technical ability on small pitches with an emphasis on comfort in possession and triangles.

Its going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

We need a fresh approach and saying that we are aiming for the Champions League is a good start. Let's start looking up the table and not down it and change the perception engendered and perpetuated during the Moyes reign of 'plucky little Everton' to one of 'sleeping giant Everton - waking up'. Ok, the money situation hasn't changed but let's change the mindset and say that our glass is half full and not half empty for once. Martinez exudes positivity to me and has at Everton a good core of experienced players and some younger prospects that he could blend together, who, with some clever additions could aim higher.

Moyes did well with what he had but in the eyes of the fans it wasn't enough to be also-rans every season and one fourth place finish just didn't cut it.

If Martinez can keep the few world class players he has and add to them then I am sure he has the temperament and wherewithal to command respect and a team spirit that will produce better football and better results.

But as other people already have pointed out, the fact that we have defense drilled into the Everton spirit over the past 11 years, I was really wondering about what RM would be able to do with Moyes 'dour' team!''

Crossing my fingers for that, but I really hope he will take this opportunity to get rid of whoever was providing his advice on defense at Wigan... :P

If I had to pick between a manager who said our 1st target is 40pts or one who said my aim is CL....

Alf Ramsey's 1st press conference in 1963 ended with... England WILL win the World Cup

'Sorry Mr Chairman, that's not what I said - I said I would get us into the Champions League as CHAMPIONS....' :)

It might not be a bad thing. IF and it's a very, very big if, he does manage it in the next few seasons he'll be able to say 'I told you so' and have the last laugh. He's done the right thing qualifying it by saying long term aspiration, not a target for next season.

So, so good as far as RM's concerned, just need to keep BK in his padded cell.

For me, Pereira was a much bigger gamble. Yes he won the Portuguese League, but with only Benfica to really challenge Porto is that such a massive achievement? Why didn't Porto want to offer him a new contract? What was his transfer record like? How good a man manager would he be with British players? He may have done a great job for us, but for me there were a lot of questions that I had heard no answers to. With Martinez I knew the answer to those questions.

Martinez does have the continental flair we crave, but he also has eighteen years experience in Britain, twelve as a player and six as a manager. Working with tight financial constraints is something he is used to. He is settled in this part of the country and knows all about Everton and our expectations. I think he dealt with the Champions League issue very well. That is our current goal, but it could take a little time to reach it. No guts no glory! I could probably blabber on for hours I'm so excited at the moment!

I like Roberto Martinez's appointment but I think from now on (as he's an honourary Scouser) he should be called Bobby Marto.

I' m assuming The people who keep banging on about this "three at the back" rhetoric are fully aware that injuries to key players forced this on him at Wigan? He even had James McCarthy CB at one point.

David Moyes resembled the grim reaper on most occasions when fronting press conferences. It makes a refreshing change to see a man who's positive and clearly eager to get to work with good players at a great club. Moyes is gone so lets not mourn him like a dead relative, he ran his contract down, earned lots of money whilst here and won a big fat zero amount of trophies. Good luck Roberto.

I would probably just add that I've no doubt Moyes strongly recommended Martinez to BK which may well have accounted for what now looks like a smokescreen surrounding an internal appointment.

For me his first big test - which won't cost us too much money - will be to re-sign Baines on a new long term contract. Once he's achieved that I will be even more optimistic about our future!

Are all they all away self flaggerating this weekend? I'll willingly give 'em a hand.

Goodbye to miserable Moyes, and a big hello to the man from Spain who has come to Goodison to end our trophy-less pain!

Personally, I will welcome a more consistently attacking mindset (one that Moyes himself was evolving to in the last 18 months), and hope that he can still KITAP1 when needed, just not too often ... I would just like a bit more free flowing KILASS ;-)

"Keep It Loose And Score Several" (Trademark)

OK, back to the new job. Haven't checked in to TW for two whole weeks which apart from holidays is a first since I found TW .........

Hasta la vista