The 2014-15 season from Roberto's viewpoint

Martinez 2015

He was gushing in his praises about Howard and Barry so they arenÂ’t being dropped any time soon. Believe it or not he said Howard has been Â’impressiveÂ’. I can count on one hand how many good games heÂ’s had.

The funniest bit was when he said there was a campaign against Alcaraz, which is just a bizarre excuse/defence of him. He says it could be because he came in from Wigan or maybe because heÂ’s Paraguayan.

Believe me Roberto, his nationality has got nothing to do with his total lack of ability mate.

As for transfers. Â’We donÂ’t have 㿈m at the momentÂ’ is what he said. Â’It could be 2 years before we have itÂ’, which tells me we have around 㾻m to spend this summer.

٤-7m will probably be spent on Lennon, Cleverley is probably his playmaker, he probably thinks he can do that role. (After all this is the same man who said after a 4-1 defeat to Blackpool that Titus Bramble was ready for an England call up)

He wants about 4 signings. A CB, a wide man, a playmaker/№ 10 and one other, probably a loan. I donÂ’t think Deulofeu will be coming either, as Roberto said itÂ’s not Â’realistic at this momentÂ’.

Credit to him for doing the interview and being honest, but personally IÂ’m not convinced by most of it and some of it does concern me. Unless the 4 or 5 signings are good ones, I can see us finishing around 7th-10th next season.

And nothing has changed, I humbly suggest Roberto and Co learn to combat this tactic pronto as itÂ’s an almost guaranteed route to score against Everton. Even if weÂ’ve both our centre-backs, a couple of defensive midfielders standing right they. All they need is a forward breezing between them to get on the end of it, and not even an accomplished forward, just someone who can leap more than a foot and is prepared to attack the ball. Much like the strike it from distance and watch Howard palm it into the net for you, or the smack it and watch the deflection as there are so many standing in the box.

Great that Roberto fronted this interview, imagine Blue Bill doing this these days? But the whole squad and tactics this season have been awful. I canÂ’t describe the disbelief I had looking at the team sheet earlier in the season when we had the possibility of having a front two of Lukaku and EtoÂ’o. How would an opposing manager have felt looking at that threat. No worries, we never bothered with it. Bizarre season, and during the Christmas period I was convinced we were going down. IÂ’m glad it is over, but nothing I read here tells me next season is going to be worse. And Atsu... what was that loan all about?

Thanks for setting us straight, Roberto, I was labouring under the misconception Alcaraz was actually just a pile of unutterable shite who strolls round the pitch like heÂ’s guest of honour at a beach football tournament.

Quite a few more statements I could contradict: I think he lives in his own little world.

The reason Alcaraz has been poor is because us fans have something against ex-Wigan players or maybe because he is Paraguayan... what utter rubbish.

He says he is delighted with the young players, ie Lukaku, Barkley and Stones, again more spin and no substance. Yes Stones has been the best of his young players. But Barkley despite him telling us that he would end up being one of Everton's best ever players when chosen doesn't last the 90 minutes, and quite honestly the lad has gone backwards under RMs time.

Lukaku has to be one of the laziest players you will see, and again another who has gone backwards under Martinez and no improvement in his movement or first touch.

I see no reason to expect next season to be any better than the one just finished, so I expect us to finish anywhere from 8th down.

I wonder if that is what Distin meant when he said there is no love without passion? I honestly thought that Roberto understood what Everton means to its supporters but the more I hear from him the more I think he hasnÂ’t got a clue what this club means to its supporters.

As for the Howard Kendall / Phillip Carter moment that was because Howard always understood what the fans wanted and had spent two or more years moulding the squad and he had an eye for a good player and a little luck. This manager will have to get extremely lucky to bring the fans onboard, because he isnÂ’t going to change his methods or style of play.

WeÂ’ve played a lot worse so whereÂ’s RobertoÂ’s offer of resignation?

HeÂ’s back to one game a week next season so no World Cup/Europa League cop outs. He had better do a whole lot better than this season or heÂ’s out.

The simplest word that comes to mind is delusional. The other thing that pops into my mind is con-man. They look you in the eye, they smile, make you feel important. Then the next thing you know theyÂ’ve swindled you out of your life savings.

So much of what he said is demonstrably untrue and contradicted by his next statement. I can not stand that man. His line about not pumping it into the box because there isnÂ’t anyone in the box. What utter shite.

You know the solution to that Bobby? Put to center forwards on the pitch and tell them to get in the fucking box!!! Seemed to work pretty well for Cahill when Baines would whip them in from the left.

The media donÂ’t seem to ask him pertinent questions, and fans in the presence of the face of their club, also fail to be ruthless in their demands. I suppose itÂ’s good manners.

He really doesnÂ’t realise just how unpopular and deluded he has become, as he never hears the truth.

The odd comment from the stands can be dismissed out of hand, after all didnÂ’t the majority of fans stay for the lap of honour on Sunday?

Be reassured, itÂ’s the same again next season, and for as long as Luvvie Bill and and his cohorts can get away with it. The board and the management are a joke but no one's laughing.

A Proper Catalonian Clown

On his list of excuses (sorry... 'reasons') for the shambles that was the season;

a) The first two games of the season where we drew, conceding late goals in both. Apparently this knocked the playersÂ’ confidence back so much it affected them for the following 36 league games over 9 months and they never recovered. I cannot even be bothered to counter this as its so ridiculous.

b) Â’Overcoming the style of some of the lesser Premier League teamsÂ’ – ie, Â’lesserÂ’ teams parking the bus. Whilst he does have a point here, heÂ’s also paid about ٢M a year to come up with solutions and not seeming to come up with any over an entire year does not bode well. It also does not explain why/how we were leading in 19 games this season and managed to blow the vast majority and also why our defence was so poor when these Â’lesserÂ’ teams were parking the bus.

c) The World Cup affected preseason preparation and apparently ’you see a peak around February/March and that is what we had’ – apparently. So first off, the World Cup screwed up pre-season and the players then needed 7 months (yes seven months!!!) to get over it. Where to begin with this one... to be honest, I don’t know; we’ll move on.

Staying on the World Cup, I’d like to highlight the following – What do these players have in common; Coleman, McCarthy, Stones, Distin, Barry, Naismith, Hibbert, Garbutt, Oviedo, Gibson, Osman, Pienaar, Kone, McGeady, Robles, Alcaraz... ??? NONE of these were at the World Cup! 16 first team players, FFS (a couple were admittedly injured).

Everyone has known since (I believe) 2006 that there would be a World Cup in Brazil, Summer 2014. Probably would have been good to sort out proper planning, after all you came to Everton a year earlier, will put this down to inexperience shall we?

Every other team in the league also had players at the World Cup – not just poor old Everton – so not really a decent excuse....

You decided to go to Brazil to commentate, guess it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you....your choosing though...

Taking the above Wold Cup combined, I can only surmise that RM fucked up preseason because he didnÂ’t take it seriously enough (he wouldnÂ’t have gone to Brazil otherwise). I will just about put this down to arrogance and/or lack of experience but at least admit it!

d) Reason why EL is harder than CL? Apparently ’ travelling is different. You are playing more games in Ukraine and Russia’. Well, now that smells like manure again Roberto doesn’t it, last time I looked there were eastern European teams in the CL as well. Just a couple that spring to mind; CSKA Moscow, Zenit St Petersburg, BATE (Belorussian) not to mention Galatasaray/Turkey and APOEL/Greece – absolute bollocks again. Also most of our EL games were in those far flung distant territories known as France, Germany and Switzerland. Also half the Russia and Ukraine games we played were at home. Out of 10 EL games we only had to travel far twice!

e) The Sunday KOs are also an issue as they are a bit earlier – starting at 14:00 instead of 16:00 seems to cause our illustrious manager a manager problem. Right.

f) "In the Premier League you can play at 95% and still lose. In Spain you can play at 60% and win. In the Premier League you have to be at it every game." Erm – WTF has that got to do with the price of fish? Every other team we play against in the league is based in... well... England as we’re an English team! Or are you wishing we could somehow transplant Spanish sides into the PL so we can ’play at 60% and win’?

g) "The other thing is Christmas. Every other game, more or less, they stop. The British game it is the busiest period. I do think there is something which needs to be done if you want to help the Premier League compete in Europe." Again – IT'S THE SAME FOR EVERY OTHER TEAM! How the fuck is that an explanation for our poor performances? It also didn’t seem to affect you in 2013 or the 4 years at Wigan.

h) "The loss of Leon Osman and Steven Pienaar for a large part of the season has contributed towards us struggling to break these teams down."

For once, I can actually agree with something. Although I would add, given their respective ages, it would have been wise to sign a creative midfielder in the summer. Osman and Pienaar need to be replaced at some point.

An hour and a half this interview went on for and it seems the journos lapped up everything dished out to them with tongues hanging out, taking all the above as obvious and just explanations for why this season has been a complete and utter waste of time. RM can spin it with the best of them but all I see is a man who refuses to admit his mistakes and comes up with bollocks as explanations when things go wrong but manages to say it with a straight face and ’look you in the eye’ – he’s either in denial, actually deluded or just a smooth-talking bullshitter, I still cannot work out which one.

How did this guy ever get into football management?

"Look into my eyes, the eyes, the eyes, not around the eyes and you are under. I have not been taking your underwear home, putting it on in my bedroom... In front of the mirror" etc etc

Joe # 4 is right, his comments on Alcaraz are cretinous. He takes a view of games that is often self-serving and narrow-minded. There is an air of arrogance that is totally unjustified.

It is an interesting and illuminating piece; he has an answer for everything and that is quite different from answering everything.

I have absolutely no confidence in him. I would like him gone.

The man is just a mass of contradictions!

WeÂ’ve got great character, but after 3 games our season was cattle-trucked?

All this crap about Besic, Garbutt, Robles, Kone, McGeady, Stones (early doors) etc.... These players needed to play – there were many opportunities during this shit season that this manager should/ could have been brave enough to... "Drop the dross" from the side and have faith in your so- called squad players!!( that’s their purpose) All he done was make fecking excuses to select the "dross" all season. There are maybe only three players that deserved to play throughout the season... The rest deserved to be dropped! They have been shite!!

Younger players who have been waiting for a chance to perform have been let down by this guy. Accelerated learning comes from playing games; talented youngsters can step outside their comfort zone (Besic in World Cup). They perform with spirit and except their trials and tribulations. Progress is built, in effect, upon the foundations of necessary failure.

You only have to look at Garbutt, Stones, Galloway, Besic... etc. They all performed very well, some exceptional!!! But the only player you had the balls to play was Stonsey! (mainly due to the other senior c/h being shitte)

I have never heard of players becoming better players while sitting on their ass watching all season!!!! ( stop blowing smoke up their ass... You should have grown a pair and given them the opportunity they deserved!! Really, could it have got any worse? You donÂ’t deserve to manage a Sunday league side!... Shame on you.

The only thing your good at is... The power of bullshit (words)... A performer!

Err excuse me Roberto,youÂ’re talking shite, our best player over the last two seasons has been James McCarthy and he came from Wigan! No Â’campaignÂ’ against him at all.

Perhaps the Â’campaignÂ’ against Alcaraz is because he is shit!

If John Stones was ill against Kyiv away, why was he was on the bench then? What would have happened if Alcaraz was injured in the first minute? Looking at our bench that night, Robles, Stones, Garbutt, Besic, Gibson, Osman and Kone, I can only see one recognised Centre Half and thatÂ’s Stones.

However, regardless of whether it is done knowingly or not, he comes across as being stubborn and deluded. This is surely not a good combination for someone who has to motivate millionaire professionals who are not all as gullible, naive, and obedient as many would like you to believe.

The performances this season mostly show a group of players who have lost direction and form. It is usually fine and indeed expected for a player or a couple of players to be out of form for certain periods of the season but to have so many players not performing to the expected level for such a long spell is curious to say the least.

Naismith is a particular curiosity as he often personified the spirit that Roberto talks about and never failed to give 100% whenever he took to the pitch but his last few months or longer he has looked an angry, limited talent who has lost faith in his own ability similar to most of the forward thinking players at the club.

If we canÂ’t find a way of improving our attack, we canÂ’t expect our results to improve, Roberto mentions that we took the lead in many games and I would agree that usually that would result in getting something out of the game, however, I would also argue that it is our impotency as a creative team that is making life extra difficult for the defenders and leading to mistakes which in turn leads to dropped points.

Martinez was right in saying that these results set the tone for the season but, rather than it being "psychological", it seemed to me to be down to poor conditioning.

Anyway, we only drew the first 3 games of last season and yet still went on to achieve a records points total.

Roberto has got arguably the best squad of players that we have had for 30 years and looks to be out of his depth in managing them.

Is anyone genuinely excited when we pass the ball between our defenders 20 times then eventually either twat it up or lose possession. I donÂ’t expect us to win the league but playing this style of football is killing my appetite for the Blues.

For those that didnÂ’t listen... In many ways, thatÂ’s what I expected from RM, a belief in his players (they thought they would win the Europa League), accepting where weÂ’ve been poor and looking to build a better future.

He mentions Coleman, Stones, McCarthy, Besic, Barkley and Lukaku as the core group of players to build his future team around and we donÂ’t have to sell anyone.

He states he wants three players in, a centre half, creative No 10 and a wide player plus maybe one more. WeÂ’ll reduce the first team squad by two as a result of not being in Europe.

HeÂ’s planning on bringing players through from the academy the season after next, clearly they think some have potential to become members of the first team squad.

He seeÂ’s us developing our style, an intelligence to change tactics within the game and to adapt to the opposition accordingly. He has no doubt his philosophy will work, flexibility within play.

And finally, weÂ’ve offered Luke Garbutt a contract to stay at Everton, LukeÂ’s having a think about it.

As recently as the Spurs game, Eric Dier put it in the box for Harry Kane to score an excellent goal. Meanwhile, our own big galloot was zigzagging every which way bar into the box and never looked like scoring.

Over the dismal season, I wonder how many we conceded because opponents did the simple thing of PUTTING IT IN THE BOX!

There have been campaigns against Osman every season. There has been an unrelenting, unforgiving and quite spiteful campaign against Martinez with no end product other than to undermine everything he does, says, or even wears.

I honestly don’t see what benefits this constant self serving carping brings to either players or manager. He will be here for the forseeable future. Criticise if you must – just leave off the daily campaigning for his sacking as it diminishes us all.

It was obvious from the start of the season that we had be worked out, sussed. We got our saving run together (and Lennon helped, as a defender as much as anything!) by tightening up. So when Besic came on in the second half, we actually made a game of it. But although it wasnÂ’t good enough, it at least wasnÂ’t half a game wasted, when we were bound to let one in at some point.

And that’s what the season has been like – about half of it wasted for the want of tactical change. Simply not good enough.

ps: Most of Gordon LeeÂ’s best players were Billy BinghamÂ’s.

I would like Martinez to be sacked as would some others. As yet we have not organized a campaign. I and others might be unrelenting but not, in my opinion, spiteful and unforgiving.

How many people listening to this interview explaining the problems / excuses for last seasonÂ’s performances for over an hour, believe he is the rght man to lead Everton?

My estimation is that the players we have at our disposal arenÂ’t as bad as the results and more importantly the performances suggest but I would argue that RobertoÂ’s idea of football would be alien to the players that Chelsea or Arsenal possess and perhaps most other top Premier League clubs as well.

My dream is that some European team will take him away as, like you say, he isnÂ’t going to be sacked and he would never resign, so we are stuck with him for the foreseeable future.

I can’t see any top club chasing his signature and I wasn’t aware that any club was chasing his signature before he arrived at Goodison – that tells a story all of its own without any campaigns on TW or elsewhere.

I donÂ’t mind Alcaraz, he came to Everton too late in his career and his best days were behind him to show his true value. Martinez talks a load of nonsense and web Evertonians will not be taken in by his silly talk.

I enjoy your offerings, John, and you offer some sense and a lot of fun; now, if only Roberto could take a leaf out of your book, heÂ’d have quite a few more followers among the fans.

My guess is Liam Walsh. He looks a handy little playmaker.

No-one should be blaming a poor season on a late equaliser at Leicester and losing a lead against Arsenal, or bemoaning the loss of two players past their prime and into the their 30s.

IÂ’ve seen much worse seasons than this one but not when there is a crop of players so good and who should be doing so much better. That to me is down to the manager and the inflexible tactics and the stubborn belief in certain players.

I donÂ’t like to praise young players too much because I think it puts too much pressure on them but in this case I am optimistic that Liam will do it for us.

But the last 5 months or so he comes out with a pearl of his wisdom at a rate of nearly once a day and it just confirms what I suspected. HeÂ’s lost the plot and canÂ’t find the answer. IÂ’d love to know what heÂ’s thinking before he comes out with another one of these madcap pearls of RobertoÂ’s wisdom.

Would he not be better employed as one of those life coachs / quacks that makes everyone see the bright side of their lives to boost their confidence?

IÂ’m past worrying now, the manÂ’s a one-man walking talking comedy show. Embrace the madness and, before he annoys you, just start laughing. YouÂ’ll feel better for it! WhatÂ’s he going to come out with next? He surely has exhausted every avenue of platitude for all of our squad by now...

Pienaar’s (sadly) finished in my opinion, by the way; it’s a shame because I rated him as a good player – him and Baines were a superb combination.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/32886670

Old has beens played at the expense of youth. Negative tactics which will destroy the better players still further. Lack of leaders on the pitch. Lack of creativity because it's frowned upon. Walking Football (it's for OAPs, Martinez!). No urgency. No Focus. No crosses! No corners!! No defending!!! No fucking ideas...

Relegation candidates for sure.

We have Thatcher in a suit and brown shoes: "The man is not for turning."

We are the lowest spenders of the long stay premier league teams. We get outspent by teams like Swansea. Is this RobertoÂ’s fault or did we overachieve for years under Moyes, our once frowned upon manager (on here, anyway)?

So until Boys Pen Billy and his merry band of cohorts up the investment, until we get bought out following the painstaking 24/7/365 lie, if we get a new stadium for nothing and can fill it with a load of new fans willing to spend on merchandise or until perhaps some of you millionaires stick your hands in your deep pockets, then mid-table mediocrity is likely to be where we finish. So donÂ’t blame the manager cos the next one will be just as hamstrung as this one regardless of the "tactics" or "style".

To be deprived of any hope of trophies whilst at the same time witnessing some of the most sterile football we have seen for many a year is a double whammy, unless of course it actually comes down to the price of our season tickets being too low and we shouldnÂ’t expect any better.

We wonÂ’t need a new stadium or enhanced facilities if the next couple of seasons serves up the same tepid, directionless football, as nobody apart from the real die-hards will want to pay to watch it.

Bournemouth and Norwich, albeit in the lower division, seem to be able to pass the ball around and create chances and I donÂ’t believe they were the richest clubs in the Championship.

The graph shows we were the 6th highest spenders but finished 11th

11th and finished there.

Net spend ٠.5m per year. Incredible

No, it sounded like you were honoured just to be in his company. Yes he might be a right charmer gentleman etc in the company of fans but thatÂ’s no criteria of being a good football manager. Some of the shite he speaks is laughable and Denis (23) got it right with every point made about him.

Oh and by the way, IÂ’ve personally got nothing against Paraguay and its countrymen. What I have got a gripe about is slow centre halves with no football brain and a terrible lack of pace and positional sense. I personally couldnÂ’t give a fuck if they came from Outer Mongolia as long as they could play, so his geographical reference makes no sense whatsoever.

Yes, Paul. weÂ’d all love him to do well next season but just read back what heÂ’s just said. Are they really the words of a man dealing with a full pack? No theyÂ’re not. As someone earlier beautifully put it, the man is a mass of contradictions.