What if Everton swapped Roberto Martinez for Jose Mourinho?
Everton’s most recent loss to Leicester has the Toffees 10th in the Premier League and some fans are calling for Roberto Martinez’s head
Let me start this off by making something very clear. There’s no way Everton should sack Roberto Martinez. He is an excellent manager and the club is lucky to have him. While fans have every right to be disappointed with their performance this season, he’s undeniably the right man for the job.
With that said, I want to engage in an interesting thought exercise here. Let’s suspend disbelief and say that Everton did part ways with Martinez. They’d be out there looking for a manager with big-time experience to develop their exceptional, young talent. What if they successfully turned to former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho?
We have to further suspend disbelief to allow that Mourinho would take the Everton job. He’d likely be looking for a bigger club with a bigger budget, but it’s at least possible that he’d be tempted by the young talent at the club. He clearly fancies John Stones given his obsessive bidding for the defender while at Chelsea so there would at least be some attraction. At any rate, for the purposes of this exercise we’re going to assume that he’d take the job.
What would happen? I actually think the results for Everton would be outstanding. Mourinho might actually be the perfect manager for the club. Even better suited for the position than its current holder, Martinez.
One of Everton’s biggest challenges as a club is to truly believe in itself. It’s roster has the talent to be competing for Champions League qualification yet they find themselves in 10th. They have a bevy of top-notch talent in players like Ross Barkley, Romelu Lukaku and John Stones, but even with such bright lights at the top of the roster they can’t get the whole squad headed in the right direction. A manager like Jose Mourinho could institute a system that would have every player contribute to the team collective. Achieving that at Everton could equal outstanding results.
The real challenge for Mourinho at a club like Everton would be understanding the level of resources at his disposal. At a club like Chelsea if you need a player, you just go out and buy him. At Everton, you might have to further develop a youth player or accept a lesser quality alternative. He’d be forced to work with what he had a lot more than ever before.
More from Playing for 90
- Alexia Putellas reaches 400 games with Barcelona
- Everything you need to know ahead of the 250th ‘Super Clásico’
- Barcelona put five past Real Betis
- Manchester City suffer but come away with win over West Ham
- Baffling Liga MX ruling strips Puebla of a hard-earned victory
The other big challenge for “the Special One” would be relating to Everton’s players. His personality is certainly very different than Martinez so some players likely wouldn’t adjust too well. There’s also the obvious issue he’d have “making up” with star striker Lukaku. No manager is going to be successful at Everton unless they get the most out of their Belgian talisman.
Still, the upside from Everton’s perspective is tremendous. They’d be getting a world-class manager who has won everywhere he’s been. No matter how poorly things went during his last days at Chelsea, he’s still a mortal lock to win anywhere he goes. For a club like Everton that is an invaluable skill. Mourinho wouldn’t need to pilot them to a Premier League title, a top four berth would be terrific for their fans.
It might just be a dream, but the idea of Mourinho joining Everton is quite intriguing. In this day and age of modern football, stranger things have happened….just not many stranger things.