The 'Cult' of Martinez

The BBC match report features the following line: "[Roberto Martinez], who is winning a cult following amongst Evertonians on Merseyside...".

Is he?

According to oxforddictionaries.com, "cult" is defined thus:

noun

1 - a system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object: the cult of St Olaf

• a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or as imposing excessive control over members: a network of Satan-worshipping cults

• a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular thing: the cult of the pursuit of money as an end in itself

2 - a person or thing that is popular or fashionable among a particular group or section of society: the series has become a bit of a cult in the UK

[as modifier]: a cult film

OK.

1. for starters, this has nothing to do with religion. Anyway...
   • Evertonians might be a relatively small group of people in the absolute sense, but in a footballing context we are not. Particularly on Merseyside. And our belief in Martinez doesn’t seem to be regarded by anyone as strange, as pundits of various allegiances are (to one degree of patronisation or another, let’s not get started on that) unanimous that he’s doing darn well. Which at a stroke dispels any notion that he might be imposing excessive control over us, the "cult following", as the non-"cult following" are so far pretty convinced too.
   • Satan-worshipping? Wrong side of the park! I jest, of course. But it seems unlikely that we are misplaced in our admiration for the "thing" that is Martinez, as he has taken what OFM assembled and, with some well-selected additions allied to increased trust in certain of what was already there, made an effective if often stodgy team achieve arguably better things, given how seasons have tended to start in recent years, while being that much easier on the eye. He has had to earn our admiration, as many felt he was an appointment that held risk having seen the way his Wigan teams defended. Evidently not so. Nor are we being excessive; I don’t feel that any among us is getting carried away by what has been, it must be said, an impressive start to his tenure. We are all aware that the loss of an important player or two to injury could make a huge difference to things. Not that this is Martinez’s fault, or even a new problem.
     
     
2. Yes, Martinez is popular, maybe even fashionable, among the particular group or section of society known as "Everton fans". Of course he is. Look at the Premier League table. But here we reach the commonly-accepted concept of a "cult": a group following of some belief or discipline or similar that runs counter to the mainstream. Here, the mainstream is as the BBC website puts it, “Evertonians on Merseyside”. It follows, therefore, that for Martinez to be "winning a cult following amongst Evertonians on Merseyside", the majority of the mainstream would need to be disbelieving or at best undecided. I don’t live on Merseyside, so I don’t know for sure, but I find it hard to believe that this could be the case.

   And I think I remember hearing some years ago from the mate of a man in a pub that Martinez was cast in a very small role in Pulp Fiction. The scene apparently ended up on the cutting room floor and his cult film career never took off. He became a footballer instead.

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