This was a very rare and specialy opportunity for the supporters who take the time to manage the fans sites. For all the rubbish we have to deal with on the messageboards sometimes, it is more than worth it when you get the opportunity to go and meet a very special man in the history of Wigan Athletic Football Club. Roberto Martinez is not only a very talented football manager, and a very intelligent man, but he is also a Wigan Athletic supporter and he knows just how important this club is to its supporters and how much it has grown over the past few years. This does not mean that he is not as fiercly ambitious as our passionate chairman, in fact quite to opposite. And in the same way that Sir Alex Ferguson struggled during his early days with Manchester United, Roberto Martinez is not a short term fix for Wigan Athletic, but he is looking longer term. He is looking at what is best for the club and what can help to build this club from the perennial relegation fighters into a top regular top half team. It was certainly a pleasure to be given the opportunity to be part of such a small group of people given the opportunity to experience the 'inner sanctum' of the training ground and to speak at length so personally with the Wigan Athletic manager. The major point that came across to myself was the humility and passion for the club that Roberto displayed. Our previous manager left us with a poor squad after absconding for his next position on his dreamland to Old Trafford. He moved for more money and what he perceived would be more success.
Martinez on the other hand has a deep loyalty for this club and I think he has the knowledge to take is to the next level.
The Latics manager was refreshingly open and frank about all the teams affairs. All the questions put to Roberto were sensible and well put and he dealt with them in a professional manager.
The meeting lasted for just short of one hour and I have painstakingly taken the time to type the entire thing out. At present the first twenty minutes are completed and can be read through below.
Although some slight edits have taken place so as no to give too much away, 99% of the text below is the open and honest opinion of the current Wigan Athletic boss. As mentioned before, this is an unprecented opportunity to get into the mind of Roberto Martinez, and we are very grateful. I hope this makes interesting reading.
Roberto Martinez is in italics
His questioners are in bold
PART TWO
Our past track record of keeping hold of players like James McCarthy has been poor. Maynor Figueroa has recently changed that way of thinking, is this something the club are hoping for more long term?
If I am honest with you, every player we are going to lose is going to be at our price, and we will replace him with two or three. With all due respects, before at the club they were reliant upon agents. Agents would say look I have this player, you should check him out, you cannot work like that and you need to be ahead.
If an agent is bringing a player to Wigan Athletic, it is because he has failed with Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham… and then the last one, I am going to Wigan.
Now we have a better recruitment system. Not as good as I want it, but we have got at least one hundred players we are looking at. Before you see players on Sky like Mido and Zaki who go through all the team at the bottom of the league.
If you buy these players, you will just become an average football team. Marcelo Moreno for example, nobody had even mentioned him. These are the players we need to get if we are going to get ahead.
We got Spain, Scotland, Holland, Portugal etc… these are big markets for us, and of course, South America. I think we need an Argentinean, Paraguayan or Uruguayan at the back.
Lets say if someone comes in and offers silly money for Charles N’Zogbia, and we have to sell him, I guarantee you we will bring three players in to improve the football club.
Not like before where we lose a 24 year old and we bring in a 30 year old such as Marlon Kings and people like that. We need to be prepared to lose players, but if we lose a player we need to go to a different level.
Do you think you are maybe a few transfer windows away from having the team that you want?
Yes, two. I would say two. At the moment we are missing a real playmaker. Someone who can play in front of the back four, get the ball and dictate the play a little bit.
We have to be top eight. In two years I hope we are in the top eight. Not like a top eight, that is over night, rather a group of players and a way to play. If we lose a player then we will bring in another two or three and we will always look to be in the top ten.
At the moment, the next eleven games for us are massive. It is vital that we stay in the Premiership.
Will you be treating all those games the same or will you have any special tactics for our games with the relegation rivals?
There are certain games. For example, Burnley, with Owen Coyle they play 4-3-3 now they play 4-4-2. Games against teams like Burnley, Portsmouth, Hull, we will try to play a little bit more on the front foot, trying to play with two or three strikers, trying to put pressure on them.
I think with the other teams, when we are playing Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa, we will play in a different way but every game is a unique opportunity to get points.
We sat down with the players and we target all the games. We said well where are we going to get the points and the reality is that everyone said we are capable of losing against anyone, but also of winning against anyone.
That is a good way to look at it because you don’t limit yourself. If we perform the way we can, then we can beat anyone and if we don’t then we can lose against anyone.
They are not in such a confident mood right now. We are one result away from a click. At the moment the last two game shave been real uphill battles.
Although it is not an excuse because you need to overcome it, but the decisions [of referees] have been difficult because if you go 1-0 down you have to overcome that and score two goals.
We do seem to struggle when we are 1-0 down?
Can you tell me in the last two years how many time we have overcome a 1-0 defeat? During a game, and with all due respect to all the other managers, we were more trying to keep a clean sheet. We would look to be really solid and then hit the other teams.
When the team would go 1-0 down the game plan is then gone and there would be two or three subs and we would go for the game. Over the last two years we have never overcome a 1-0 down in the Premiership.
Is that a problem in the league that teams now get 1-0 ahead and are so adept at stopping the other team from playing?
I think Birmingham is a clear example of this. They get 1-0 ahead and then it is just the way they work to keep the clean sheet. But you look at Birmingham through what they have achieved this season through working and working and chasing that dream.
Birmingham with the same team next season will get relegated.
Birmingham remind me so much of when we first came into the Premierleague. The work ethic is so much like we were.
In a way, when I speak with managers after the game they say that they were very worried about playing Wigan Athletic. They don’t know how to play against us. The way we are we have some real talented players that get in between lines and re hard to stop.
The problem is that as a team we haven’t been mentally strong enough to be consistent and in every game you don’t see the best Wigan Athletic. Some games it has taken us twenty minutes just to be into the game and you cannot afford to do that.
You have mentioned it yourself, our back four is relatively young and doesn’t have a great deal of Premiership experience. Do you think that mental strength will come with time?
I think it is a bit of both. Gary Caldwell has been big on that. For the first time on Saturday he came to me and asked if the team could do the huddle before the game. Small details like that get the team together, get the team focussed and get that belief. I don’t think we had that.
Titus now is growing into a leader. He is in that transitional time where he is becoming from a young man to an important man. He is at the right age and now he needs to be a leader. You have players like Titus who I want to be leaders and at the moment they haven’t been leaders before.
And then you have the youngsters. I don’t mind, I think that having the energy and the youth that we have is going to help us more than the lack of experience.
I think Chris Kirkland is in the best moment of his career, and obviously Gary Caldwell and Titus Bramble. Then there is Maynor Figueroa who is going to play in the World Cup, as well as Hendry Thomas.
Hugo Rodallega is another player who everyone speaks about with great admiration. These are people who have a great presence about themselves. We need a couple of good results to get the good belief within the group.
Sometimes this youth is better than any sort of experience. For example before we played Chelsea I told them that we are going to win today. A youngster like James McCarthy will look at you and say ‘Yes, we are going to win today.’
And a Mario Melchiot will say ‘Yeah, of course we are! I have been there seven times before and we have never beaten them so I don’t think we are going to beat them.’
Sometimes you need to use that naivety.
Speaking of youth, are there any signs of a younger goalkeeper? My reason being are that Mike Pollitt must be hitting forty now?
Lee Nicholls at the club is the first player to sign professional terms with the club at the age of sixteen, whilst Leighton Baines was seventeen. We are trying to put a lot of emphasis on the current group of young players we have at the club.
In terms of the goalkeeper, we had Dea who we nearly signed from Atletico Madrid on the last day of the transfer window in August. The boy was ready to come and he was a bit frustrated. He was someone we had followed in the B team of Atletico Madrid.
The last day, their chairman said ‘no, it is not going to happen.’ Now he is number one goalkeeper for Atletico Madrid, playing in the Champions League and it came out that Manchester United want him.
We have our eye on very young and talented players. Like Marco Ruben for example. We were very, very close, but at the end we couldn’t do it, but now the other week he played for Villarreal against Real Madrid.
We need to be brave, to identify young talented players. Until now we would get someone of thirty with a big name and a big reputation and the manager is not putting their name on the line. I don’t work like that.
I prefer to put my name on the line and then get the best years of a player, rather than the worst years of a player. It is the happy balance. We need to get people like Gary Caldwell who is twenty-seven years old and has been the captain of Celtic and is in a great moment of his career. The best years of his career are for Wigan Athletic.
It is this balance that will allow us to aim for a top eight finish. Otherwise we will always be finishing seventeenth, sixteenth, fifteenth, or if we have a lucky year where everything goes your way and you get five or six wins, you finish eleventh. But there is no real substance as to how you have done that, and that is where the work is.
Roberto, you mentioned before that you feel we are lacking this play-maker in the middle of the field. Is that the reason you bought Jordi Gomez, and has he been a bit of a disappointment in that role?
We haven’t seen the best of Jordi yet, but I wouldn’t say he is a playmaker in terms of the one that allows the transition from the back four.
We work a lot trying to get the ball out from the back, and be patient from the back, dislodging the opposition and trying to find the moment to go through. Sometimes it is that midfielder that allows the position to get the one versus one in the forward line. We are missing that player.
Jordi is more of a wide player that plays on his own tempo. I know against Stoke the fans got frustrated with him because they didn’t understand that we needed to have possession. We needed someone to stop the game as it was going crazy from box to box and this was helping Stoke with the 50/50 ball. The crowd were getting a little bit anxious.
Jordi plays in a different way. We need to grow as a team to allow Jordi to have a bigger influence. At the moment he sometimes seems too slow or he loses possession too cheaply when really that is his strength.
He is the one that always keeps possession and in a way he stops the tempo and changes the game with a quick pass or with a good decision. We haven’t seen the best of Jordi but I think that is because the way we play, we haven’t helped Jordi either.
That is when Jordi will be successful with us is a sign that we have come a really long way.
One player who seems to have been a particular target of frustration this season has been Jason Scotland. How do you react when you hear people boo your players? How do you feel when you hear that?
Well, everything we do is for the fans. Then when the fans are affecting a player to help get a result for the football club that really disappoints me because we are not helping ourselves.
I have no problems with the fans after the game expressing their opinion about someone, myself, or the way we play. But for the ninety minutes, if we are going to affect our own results then I think we are a bit stupid, and that kills me.
Everything we do is for Wigan Athletic.
I understand different opinions and dislikes. I love the feedback from the fans but not booing during the game.
I have never met anyone like Jason Scotland who cares about his career, about the way he is. At the moment it is like a big mental block so when you see that during the game he is working hard to get the result, and he doesn’t get that feeling from the fans, it is disappointing.
When you brought Jordi and Jason in, where they players that you thought could have an immediate impact?
No, in a way I haven’t been able to treat Jordi and Jason in the same way that I have been able to treat James McCarthy and Victor Moses. When you bring players from the Championship with huge potential to come in an effectively fight for a place.
Because we lost so many players and others did not perform. For example the number one striker at the club should have been Olivier Kapo. You want Jason Scotland to fight against Olivier Kapo for his position.
And in a moment you realise that you cannot rely on certain individuals and we were forced to start with Jordi against Villa and Jason has had to play earlier than I had expected. I have been unfair with them in that respect.
In another situation we would have found Jason and Jordi slowly settling into our football club and into the Premiership and having a bigger impact. I know that they have suffered in the last six or seven months.
Now they are mentally strong and ready to have a massive impact. The difference, if you see James McCarthy, everyone is speaking about him from the top clubs to everyone. The reason why James is having that massive role for Wigan Athletic at nineteen is because for six months he has been coming to terms with his position, what he had to do, and how to fight to get into that role.
If we would have started him in the first league game, we would have lost James McCarthy because we are human beings. Football is not like a computer game. He was a substitute against Manchester United earlier in the season and he looked like a young boy. And then the other night he plays against Brazil and he looks like a real player. That has been seven months and the difference. We are human beings.
For example John Terry, we all watched John Terry against Egypt. He is well affected but what has happened and is certainly not the same player. If an England captain gets affected by what is going on in his personal situation, what chance does a boy that is finding out about the Premiership, a boy that is nineteen, have? Those are the differences between helping the player or not.
Part three of three will be published tomorrow.
