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Martinez pleased with pre-season progress

Roberto Martinez has expressed his satisfaction with his players' pre-season preparations as they get ready for their third friendly against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday and the trip to the USA that follows.

Speaking to evertontv, the Spaniard explained how he has been able to assess the squad he inherited when he became the Blues' boss last month and he has been impressed with the professionalism and the quality of his new charges.

Martinez expressed how "vitally important" it is to develop as a team and his efforts to that end will be boosted by the fact that, with the arrival of Gerard Deulofeu, he now has all of his players in pre-season training. The Barcelona teenager, who will spend the season on loan at Everton, has joined up with his new teammates after taking time off to recuperate from the U20 World Cup in Turkey.

Martinez admitted that Deulofeu has been itching to get to Finch Farm to meet the players and the manager cited the upcoming trip to the United States for the International Champions Cup as coming at the perfect time for both he and the rest of the team as the new Premier League season draws closer.

The squad will fly out to California after this weekend's friendly at Ewood Park where Blues fans will likely get their first look at new striker Arouna Kone. The Ivorian's return to training was also delayed by an extended break following international commitments and while he was available at Accrington Stanley, he played no part in 4-1 win.

Martinez indicated that Kone will feature against Blackburn, though, after settling in well since arriving from Wigan Athletic a fortnight ago and he will be joined by Nikica Jelavic, Seamus Coleman and John Heitinga in seeing their first pre-season action. The boss expects Saturday's game to be "s step up" from the Accrington game and he is hoping for another good, injury-free exercise.

Beyond that, Martinez is looking forward to the trip across the Pond as much as an exercise in meeting more of the Everton faithful as he is sharpening his team for the coming season.

"The programme is as good as it gets, playing against some of the best sides in the world," the 40 year-old said. "It makes for quite a special tournament, one where we will need to find our victories through the way we approach the games. The score lines will mean very little but can get a lot of information and positive ways of reading the game.

"We're well aware of the big following we have already in the United States," he continued. "It's a great tournament in covering a large part of the country… and a quite unique opportunity to meet as many fans as we can and to make sure they get a good feeling of our team and the family feeling we have at the football club."

Quotes or other material sourced from evertontv

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