Everton have appointed FA Cup-winning manager Roberto Martinez as their replacement for David Moyes.
Spaniard Martinez has signed a four-year deal to take control at Goodison Park after Everton agreed to pay his former club Wigan a compensation package worth around £2 million, according to Latics Chairman Dave Whelan.
The 39-year-old Martinez guided Wigan Athletic to their first ever FA Cup success last month, although he could not help the Latics stay in the Premier League as they finished the season in 18th place and will be playing Championship football next term.
Martinez has told Blues Chairman Bill Kenwright he is targeting a Champions League spot, and said at a press conference to herald his arrival: “The fans need to know they are the most important part of this club, and I will need them. What David Moyes has done is set a real high standard.
“When David [Moyes] first came to see me, we were in a bad state. His first words were, ‘we are not going down’. Roberto, almost his first words to me were, ‘I’ll get you into the Champions League’.”
“We need to make sure we are a winning side and a strong side, who can carry on achieving more.
“Finishing in the top six was a magnificent achievement, and we need to keep building if we want to improve on that.”
Everton announced on 9th May that Moyes would leave the club after 11-and-a-half years in charge, with Manchester United signing up the Glaswegian on a six-year deal to try to fill the void following Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
Since then, Martinez had been heavily linked to take the helm at Goodison, although several other names had been mentioned as possibilities, including Celtic manager Neil Lennon and newly-promoted Cardiff’s Malky MacKay.
Martinez informed Wigan that he wanted to leave the DW Stadium at the end of May with one year left on his contract, citing that he was “not equipped to take Wigan back to the Premier League”.
After joining as manager in 2009, Martinez successfully steered the club away from relegation in three consecutive years despite spending long periods as odds-on favourites to finish in the bottom three in the Premier League.
A former defensive midfielder, his original link with the Latics came in 1995 when he joined the then Third Division club as part of the ‘Three Amigos’, alongside fellow Spaniards Jesus Seba and Isidro Diaz, and spent six years there as a player.
Swansea were the first club to appoint Martinez as manager and winning the League One title with them gave him the division’s Manager of the Year award in 2008. He has since been credited with instigating the attractive footballing philosophy which Brendan Rodgers continued to coach at Swansea before leaving for Liverpool.
Martinez himself was interviewed for the Anfield position last summer after earlier rejecting an approach from Aston Villa.
The new manager now faces the task of keeping Everton’s best players where they are, with the club’s Player of the Year Leighton Baines and Belgian talisman Marouane Felliani being the subject of summer transfer speculation, possibly following David Moyes to Manchester.
He will also be expected to at least rival Moyes’ Premier League record, despite the limited transfer funds available, after the Scot left the club as regular top six finishers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulg0Zfgk-HA