The famous Albert Einstein quote of “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” immediately came to mind when hearing reports that Everton had supposedly approached their former manager Roberto Martinez to replace Rafa Benitez.
Einstein developed the theory of special relativity stating that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers. But do those rules still apply in the penalty area and could the legendary scientist’s incredible brain have solved the unfathomable equation of how to stop the Blues conceding from set pieces?
Boffin jokes apart though, the prospect of Martinez returning to Goodison Park is not a laughing matter for thousands of long-suffering Evertonians who can only hope that the Belgian FA have indeed rebuffed any advances for their national team coach.
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While the affable Catalan has his admirers among Everton’s power brokers – chairman Bill Kenwright of course was the man who hired him to replace David Moyes back in 2013 – the timing of the move seems onerous given that Martinez’s work with Belgium has all been geared towards the World Cup finals in Qatar at the end of this year.
Even if Everton were able to secure Martinez’s release and he was prepared to return for a second spell as manager, has Farhad Moshiri really forgotten how things ended so badly in those early weeks after he became the club’s majority shareholder in the spring of 2016?
The 3-2 capitulation against West Ham United when the Blues had been leading 2-0 until 12 minutes to go was the week before Mr Moshiri made his Goodison bow for the FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea so he was spared that one.
However, there was also the second 4-0 humiliating to Liverpool at Anfield of Martinez’s reign; the 3-1 loss at champions Leicester City which in reality could have been any score (Everton were like the stooge basketball team the Harlem Grobetrotters run rings around that day); the 3-0 thrashing to Sam Allardyce’s lowly Sunderland that secured the Wearsiders’ top flight status and even the 2-1 home win over Bournemouth – a solitary victory in 10 games – where there was a post-match fan protest to remove the manager.
All this combined to make Mr Moshiri feel he had to sack Martinez with one game of the season still left to play rather than risk the wrath of the Goodison crowd in giving him the final fixture against relegated Norwich City on what was goalkeeper Tim Howard’s farewell after a decade on Merseyside (Joe Royle and David Unsworth took charge for a 3-0 win).
Despite having just secured an FA Cup with Wigan Athletic, the fact that Martinez had been relegated that same month had alarm bells ringing with many Evertonians when he was chosen as Moyes’ successor.
Typically positive, Mr Kenwright declared he’d told him he’d take the club into the Champions League and while he didn’t quite get there, an impressive debut season brought the club’s highest Premier League points haul of 72 (11 more than when his predecessor had finished fourth in 2005) with the stability of a squad assembled over the Scot’s tenure of over a decade supplemented by canny acquisitions like Gareth Barry, James McCarthy and namely Romelu Lukaku, by far Everton’s best striker of the past 30 years.
Moyes’ parting gift of John Stones, a youthful ball-playing centre-back blossomed under Martinez and the new boss achieved something Moyes never could and won away against one of the division’s big boys – Manchester United of course with the ex-Everton manager at the helm.
However, after being handed a bumper new five-year deal on the back of that impressive first campaign – a decision that would ultimately cost the club around £10million in compensation – the more Martinez imposed his own imprint on the team, the more they floundered and despite possessing what was widely-perceived as being Everton’s strongest squad of the Premier League era, back-to-back bottom half finishes were seen as major under-achievements.
For a couple of hours on Sunday, a browbeaten fanbase were released of the shackles of Benitez, a manager who could only win one of his last 13 games.
After choosing the 61-year-old former Liverpool boss last summer in what was the most-controversial appointment in the history of England’s most-passionate football city it was going to take something really wild to top trump that in terms of supporter disillusionment. But if Everton go down the Martinez route they might well have pulled off a staggering trick.
Personally I don’t think managers going back to football clubs is generally a good idea per se – that was proven at the Blues with their greatest-ever boss Howard Kendall (twice) – but when they do, it’s usually because their first spell was successful.
It therefore beggars belief that after deeming Martinez not good enough just weeks after he arrived and parting with an eight-figure sum just to get rid of him, Mr Moshiri and his advisers could go through Koeman, Allardyce, Silva, Ancelotti and Benitez and end up going back at square one.
“The School of Science, it’s on its way back?” Not this time.
