A patient man who believes in patient football, Roberto Martinez has shown himself to be a class apart in a game ruled by money and gun-slinging chairmen...
Roberto Martinez today reaffirmed his status as a Wigan Athletic legend by turning down the advances of former European Cup Winners Aston Villa to stay with little ole’ Wigan Athletic. Roberto, who recently claimed to be two years into a five-year plan is clearly thought to have been sorely tempted into managing a big club like Aston Villa with bigger transfer and wage budgets but decided against it to carry on the good work he has been doing at Wigan Athletic.
Although the Roberto Martinez era has not met with universal approval amongst Wigan Athletic fans, many are delighted that he has chosen to stay with the club where he first made his name back in 1995 and today’s decision will only ensure that his list of admirers across the footballing world grows ever longer.
The challenge now on a personal level will be to take on the team which performed so admirably during the last three months of last season and deliver against his plan to try and establish Wigan Athletic as a top ten Premier League side. If he gets anywhere close to achieving this aim over the next season or so, he will further cement his reputation as one of the brightest young managers in the game and be coveted by even bigger and more famous clubs than Aston Villa.
Of course it could backfire on him, there is always a risk that you only get one chance in life and that was it but you can’t help but admire the conviction of the nicest man in football that he will continue to develop a young Wigan Athletic side into establishing themselves further up the Premier League and enhance his reputation as a man who builds not just a team but a squad, a football club with a passionate footballing philosophy from top to bottom.
