Roberto Martinez (Everton)
Things went sour for Bobby Martinez after a very encouraging first year at Goodison. Perhaps that caused the Spanish manager to lose perspective because his second season with Everton was littered with moments of pure delusion.
Things went sour for Bobby Martinez after a very encouraging first year at Goodison. Perhaps that caused the Spanish manager to lose perspective because his second season with Everton was littered with moments of pure delusion.
Positivity was everything to Martinez, so much so that routine, mundane occurrences were consistently described as ‘phenomenal’ or ‘incredible’. The positivity extended to his tactical approach, with the dirty defensive work largely ignored on the training ground. Martinez’s assistant Graeme Jones was quoted in Leon Osman’s autobiography as saying: “Why would we spend two hours standing around to defend three set-pieces when we could work on moving the ball?”
Like most managers, Martinez built up his players, but too often to the point of ridicule. On Tom Cleverley, he said: “I think you do not have a better English player. Technically, he is as good as you get. For me he is one of the most sensational you are going to see in Premier League history.” And John Stones could be “one of the greatest players England has ever seen,” apparently.
Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United)
Martinez is certainly not alone in talking up his own players, with even the greatest managers sometimes getting carried away.
Martinez is certainly not alone in talking up his own players, with even the greatest managers sometimes getting carried away.
Ferguson, after watching Phil Jones play eight Premier League games, said in 2013: “Jones, arguably the way he is looking, could be our best ever player. I think Jones may be one of the best players we have ever had, no matter where we play him.”
Jones doesn’t deserve the stick he gets and were it not for injuries, he may well have become a United lynchpin. But to suggest he could eventually be placed in the same bracket as Best, Charlton, Edwards and Ronaldo did not help anyone.
Avram Grant (West Ham)
West Ham’s diabolical 2010/11 season owed as much to ineptitude as delusion, though ‘deluded’ is the only way to describe the approach at Upton Park if the hierarchy ever thought Grant was going to rescue the Hammers.
West Ham’s diabolical 2010/11 season owed as much to ineptitude as delusion, though ‘deluded’ is the only way to describe the approach at Upton Park if the hierarchy ever thought Grant was going to rescue the Hammers.
Grant restored his reputation at Portsmouth where, despite being relegated, his nice-guy persona won him a lot of admirers, especially in the wake of his reign at Chelsea. Davids Gold and Sullivan – not Karren Brady, she made that quite clear when the sh*t was being splattered by the fan – gave him a four-year contract but it was clear he was not up to the job of managing, motivating or organising the squad.
From November onward, the manager and owners waited for each other to put everyone out of their misery. Grant ploughed on despite being undermined at every turn, with Martin O’Neill approached to replace the Israeli after Christmas. He was not wanted by the players, fans or owners, yet Grant carried on regardless as the Hammers plummeted to the Championship, but at least he got his pay-out.
The owners were either naive or deluded in persisting with Grant, though both had been around the block for long enough to recognise the warning signs. Everyone else could see it coming, but apparently not Gold: “I honestly believed with the players we brought in in January and the imminent return of Thomas Hitzlsperger, we had done enough to pull clear of danger.”
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