In the end, it was the humane thing to do. Roberto Martinez tends to project an image of positivity, but he had to be put out of his misery before it became unbearable.
Everton fans' dislike of the sunny Spaniard had become visceral. Sunday's encounter with Norwich City promised 90 minutes of unbroken vitriol. A thoroughly decent man like Martinez does not deserve that.
Dismissing him amounted to a mercy killing. Everton's new majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri can insist he has not introduced a sacking culture at Goodison Park. The reality is that results, coupled with a climate of hatred, made Martinez's position untenable. Everton's decline was alarming.
See more on Roberto Martinez:
• Report: Roberto Martinez sacked after three years in charge at Everton
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If Martinez’s charges were still playing for the Spaniard, they had an odd way of showing it. Everton won once in their last 10 games, losing six. There were 84 shots on their goal in the three most recent away matches alone. They were easy to play against, infuriating disappointments who had the talent to be in the top six and languish in 12th while Leicester City won the league. They squandered leads and an opportunity to progress. They defended diabolically, despite having players who, individually, are good defenders.
Martinez inherited a team with seven consecutive top-eight finishes. He leaves one in the lower half of the table for a second successive year. And yet the paradox is that his legacy is a largely positive one. That can be the case with managers who eschew pragmatism, fail to secure results but lay the groundwork for others.
And in some ways, his failures make the next manager’s inheritance a better one. Replacing an underachiever has certain benefits and Everton’s next manager should find it a comparatively simple task to steer them to a higher league position. The early comparisons should flatter him.
He will have glaring weaknesses to address, but the opportunity to do so. The combination of Moshiri’s money, the biggest ever television deal and a likely windfall from the transfer market should give Martinez’s successor ample funds to secure the goalkeeper, centre-back, left winger and striker he may want. It is not merely a question of fortunate timing.
Martinez was a forward-thinking manager who trusted emerging talents. By promoting them, he put them in the shop window. A recent criticism is that the development of John Stones and Ross Barkley has stalled as Everton have regressed. Yet should Stones and Romelu Lukaku leave this summer, as is very possible, then Everton will be at least £100 million (Dh532.8m) better off. A budget-conscious club could afford to be one of Europe’s big spenders.
Martinez was deemed deluded by many in the Everton fan base. He has seemed realistic enough to know his sacking was coming. He has turned an eye to his prospects of future employment in his public pronouncements. He has had a point, too.
The well-drilled team David Moyes bequeathed him were ageing. Tim Howard, Sylvain Distin, Phil Neville, Leon Osman, Steven Pienaar and Nikica Jelavic were mainstays in the Scot’s last season. Now none are. The Croatian is 30. The others are at least 34. Martinez persisted with Howard for too long and imported the ageing Gareth Barry but, as he has pointed out, has reduced the average age of the side to around 26.
He leaves a promising group of young defenders – Brendan Galloway is particularly precocious – and a core of players nearer their peak. While his last signing, Oumar Niasse, has been bizarrely bad so far and Antolin Alcaraz proved embarrassingly poor in defence, his overall record in the transfer market is admirable. Lukaku is potent and should be profitable, James McCarthy is excellent in midfield, Gerard Deulofeu hugely talented. Factor in Muhamed Besic, Aaron Lennon and Ramiro Funes Mori and Martinez’s judgment has often been fine.
But not in his vision of how to construct a defence, and not in his rhetoric. They proved his undoing. He leaves Everton in the wrong half of the league but on the right track in some other respects.
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