The British football public, and Everton support, remains divided on whether Roberto Martinez is actually any good or not. Thursday night’s hammering in Kiev has finished a dire season for Everton nine matches before the end.

Roberto Martinez the genius footballing revolutionary? Roberto Martinez the overrated pillock, swathed in the emperor’s new clothes? The jury remains in the deliberation room after a surprisingly poor season for his Everton side.

Thursday night’s mauling in Kiev ends Everton’s interest in the Europa League, a basket into which they’d placed all of their eggs, hopes, family silver and reputation. They are now left to play out the remaining nine league games which, barring a stark upturn in form, will result in their lowest league position since 2006 (eleventh) or 2004 (seventeenth).

Martinez’s disciples say that he revolutionised not only Swansea City, but also the way football was played outside the Premier League. Ian Holloway spoke after his sacking at Leicester about how he went to watch Swansea and marvelled at their ‘out ball’ being a switched pass from one flank to the other, with both wingers remaining wide at all times to stretch the pitch. Previously the standard Football League ‘out ball’ was knocked in behind an opposing full back to turn a defence around and shove everything down the field. You could play good football, and win with it, in the Championship and League One and Martinez proved it. The Swansea City we see today, a Premier League mainstay and domestic trophy winner, was born out of Martinez’s work, we’re told.

Martinez’s critics say it was only when first the notoriously pragmatic Paolo Sousa turned up, and was then subsequently replaced by Brendan Rodgers, that Swansea learnt how to defend properly and actually started winning promotions and trophies.

The Spaniard’s fans say look how he kept Wigan in the Premier League for as long as he did. Dave Whelan used to spend big money on big name players but when that money dried up slightly, Martinez was able to maintain the Latics’ top flight status, again while playing flowing football with wing-backs bombing down both flanks. Look at Wigan without him, three managers in two years later and almost certainly heading to League One with attendances plummeting.

Not only that, but he threw an FA Cup win in there for good measure — a 1-0 win at Wembley against Manchester City and their billion pound team. The FA Cup has been devalued, and dropped down the priority list in this country, but that was every bit as big an upset as Wimbledon’s famed 1988 triumph against Liverpool and deserves to be remembered as such.

Let’s not forget, that for all this talk of a devalued FA Cup, it has still been won by Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool every year bar one since 1995 when Everton lifted it under Joe Royle’s charge. The one year it went somewhere else, Portsmouth did it with a team so expensively assembled it bankrupted the club and sent them crashing through four divisions. The FA Cup, devalued or not, is still a bloody difficult thing to win. For a club like Wigan to do it is miraculous.

But the naysayers will point out that Wigan were also relegated that year, and could easily have been in either of the two previous seasons but for remarkable — possibly lucky — runs of victories right at the very death after seven or eight months of near constant defeats. Even when playing well, Martinez’s Wigan, with Steven Caldwell at centre half, never could defend. It always looked like they were heading to sea in a sieve, the famed wing backs sitting either side of a League Two quality back three.

Last season, his first at Everton, was a glorious time to have a season ticket at Goodison Park. Everton were swashbuckling, attacking, free-flowing, free-scoring. But for a late home defeat against Tony Pulis’ resurgent Crystal Palace they’d likely have qualified for the Champions League ahead of Arsenal, who they soundly beat at home, for only the second time in the history of the modern competition.

This year, less so. Everton are fourteenth and prior to last week’s win against everybody’s favourite basket case Newcastle were starting to look like they may become embroiled in a relegation battle. In Martinez’s favour, bigger, better and more experienced squads than Everton have struggled with the demands of the horribly bloated Europa League. They’ve played ten fixtures in the competition this season, all on a Thursday and as far away as Kiev and Krasnodor.

Prior to the Newcastle win they’d lost four and drawn two of the seven Sunday fixtures immediately following the European games. A club record £28m fee to secure Romelu Lukaku last summer raised expectations but his signing, and that of Gareth Barry, only made permanent loan signings from the previous year. Everton were effectively spending the money to stand still, with all the added European games in theory requiring greater squad numbers. Gerard Deulofeu, an eye-catching loan from Barcelona the previous year, didn’t return this, weakening the attack.

But the European results, which were very good prior to Thursday, have actually fuelled criticism of the manager. In Europe, Martinez’s distinctive style of a holding midfielder dropping deep to receive the ball from the goalkeeper or centre halves before springing Coleman and Baines down the wings has worked. Wolfsburg, Lille, Young Boys — decent sides — have been swept aside. But in the Premier League, the locals have refused to be fooled twice. Everton have been worked out. The wing backs have been starved of possession. Barry, and James McCarthy, have been pressed high. The lack of speed in the back four has been picked on. In Europe Everton are new and exciting, in the UK managers have seen them, and their manager’s tactics, all before and they’ve written the cheat sheet.

The Martinez-out brigade, who crawl all over social media, and increasingly the away ends as the likes of Stoke, Hull and Southampton beat them easily, say he’s not flexible enough. Sticking with his philosophy and ethos and style of play when it’s obviously not working — like a mini Arsene Wenger, only without the glittering trophy cabinet to lean back on.

Next season, without European commitments, the jury will be called back in. Meantime I thought the most telling comment from our Everton fan Ben Johnson this week was: "I genuinely couldn’t say I’ve heard any serious alternatives being touted."

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Burnleyhoop added 23:44 - Mar 20 Nonetheless, I bet they still have enough to turn us over on Sunday. A draw at best.
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TacticalR added 01:33 - Mar 21 Thanks for your oppo profile. I must admit I find Martínez pretty hard to work out. Expectations were sky high - shown by the club's decision put up a mural of him at the side of one of the stands. It will be interesting how he does next season (if he lasts that long).
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