OPINION: Roberto Martínez’s appointment in Portugal, a master class in failing upwards

The appointment comes as a big surprise, especially as Martinez has just left his role with Belgium, where he underperformed for more than six years.

However, this might not be entirely surprising to people familiar with the Spaniard’s managerial career thus far, as failure upwards is a recurring theme in Martinez’s professional life thus far.

Martínez began his managerial career at Swansea City in English League One, where he was appointed in 2007 and caused a sensation within a year.

He led Swansea to the 2007/08 League One title, helping the Welsh club to promotion to the English second tier for the first time in 24 years while also winning League One manager of the year.

His exploits earned him a move from the Premier League to Wigan in 2009 in circumstances that could best be described as controversial to be explored later.

Martinez did a decent job of keeping Wigan in the Premier League for four more seasons, but the highlight of his time at Lancashire was winning the FA Cup in 2013, the first and only so far in the club’s history.

He then joined Everton which remains his last job at the club to date as his three years on Merseyside were followed by six more in charge of Belgium and now Portugal where he is about to take on another big job, but undeservedly.

As Martínez enters the 16th year of his professional coaching career, he still only has two trophies to prove, the English League One with Swansea in 2008 and the FA Cup with Wigan in 2013.

For every level he has coached at since Swansea, it could be argued that Martinez has underperformed but somehow manages to land a bigger job.

He was openly critical of Swansea players leaving for bigger clubs, and said publicly that he would only leave the club if he was “kicked out”. only to leave for Wigan soon after, prompting him to be nicknamed “The Judas” by Swansea fans.

In Martinez’s four seasons as Wigan manager, he had a paltry 29% win rate in 175 games and the club never finished above 15th, which they did in 2011/12 with 43 points.

For context, Wigan finished 11th with 45 points in the Premier League the season before Martinez’s appointment and the Spaniard was supposed to be an improvement on Steve Bruce, the man who made it.

But Martinez never matched Bruce and would have the club in a four-year relegation battle which they ultimately lost in the 2012/13 season.

But at least, they got an FA Cup trophy as compensation for their troubles even though Wigan never returned to the Premier League.

It’s safe to say that Martinez’s four years at Wigan weren’t exactly successful, but he still rose in the world in the immediate aftermath of relegation when he was appointed Everton manager in May 2013, just 14 days after being relegated to Wigan.

His first season at Everton was honestly impressive and his best season as a manager to date as he led the club to a fifth-place finish, with a total of 72 points, which is still the most Everton points ever. the Premier League.

But that was the best it could get for him on Merseyside, as Everton finished 11th on 47 points in each of the next two seasons, leading to his sacking in May 2016 with one game left in the season.

Following the established theme, Martinez once again landed on his feet, landing a bigger job than the one he was sacked for when Belgium announced him as their new manager, replacing Marc Wilmots.

Wilmots, a Belgian legend, was sacked after a poor EURO 2016 campaign that ended in the quarter-finals only for Martinez to also be knocked out at the same stage at EURO 2020 (played in 2021), but remarkably managed to keep his worked.

His most notable achievement with the Red Devils was holding Belgium as the number one team in the world according to FIFA rankings from September 2018 to February 2021.

Despite having what was statistically the best national team in the world and a golden generation of world-class Belgian players, a bronze medal at the 2018 FIFA World Cup is the best Martinez could show.

The embarrassing capitulation at the recently concluded 2022 FIFA World Cup in which Martinez oversaw a group stage exit was still not enough to make him unappealing to potential suitors.

How they have managed to land a better job yet again, this time with Portugal, a team on the upward trajectory in the early stages of their ‘Golden Generation’ remains to be studied.

To sum up Martinez’s international career so far, he squandered the last six years of the best periods in Belgium’s history, underperforming in every major tournament, including the UEFA Nations League.

Now he can leave with a Belgium team in its worst form in over a decade with players older and in need of a restart to join Portugal, a team packed with vibrant, world-class talent similar to what Belgium was when Martinez was appointed. in 2016.

They no longer make luck like Martinez’s, karma is a foreign concept to this man and in his universe, there are no consequences of actions, just an upward trajectory, regardless of how badly he messes it up.

One thing is for sure, if soccer training stops working for Roberto Martínez, he can transition into life and career as a coach; he knows a thing or two about securing his dream jobs while he’s unqualified.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Pulse Sports.