Everton’s Roberto Martinez owes Louis van Gaal his job
Everton manager Roberto Martinez is fortunate that Manchester United’s Louis van Gaal’s ineptitude is distracting everyone from his job performance
It is my sincere hope that Everton manager Roberto Martinez at least sends Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal an occasional thank you email. If not for van Gaal’s managerial struggles, the whole of England would be focused on Martinez’s shortcomings with the Toffees.
It really is unfair that van Gaal gets mauled by the press while Martinez gets a free pass. Granted, United is a much bigger job than Everton, but the disparity in media coverage is astounding. Don’t forget that the bungling van Gaal has United in fifth place in the Premier League while Everton resides all the way back in twelfth.
In the interest of fairness, Martinez gets the benefit of the doubt in part due to his personality as well. Whereas van Gaal comes off as officious and arrogant, Martinez has historically been charming in his media dealings. Granted, he’s been more prickly this season but his reputation still is far superior than van Gaal’s.
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With all that being said, Martinez still should be under significantly more pressure than he currently finds himself enduring. His Everton team is blessed with three world-class players and numerous other high price acquisitions. They have entirely too much talent to be residing in the bottom half of the Premier League table.
There are quite a few Premier League managers who would jump at the chance to exchange rosters with Martinez. You can bet that top-half managers like Alan Pardew or Slaven Bilic would love the chance to manage stars like Romelu Lukaku, John Stones and Ross Barkley. It’s Martinez that has them and isn’t getting the most out of their significant abilities.
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The reality is that Martinez should be feeling the heat in advance of their Capital One Cup semifinal versus Manchester City. The Everton boss should feel like the City match is an absolute must-win if he’s going to retain his job. Instead, there’s been very little discussion about his job status.
The lack of Martinez chatter is a direct result of all the focus on van Gaal. The English media simply can’t churn out enough criticism to want to can two big-name managers at the same time. First it was Jose Mourinho and now it’s Louis van Gaal. Martinez has been the recipient of amazingly good fortune.
If van Gaal finally loses is job at Manchester United it might be the worst thing that could ever happen to Roberto Martinez. Once the distraction of Manchester United’s managerial situation disappears, the lights of the tabloids are going to be squarely focused on Roberto Martinez’s Everton job status.