Adios Martinez

By: Tom | June 22nd, 2009

Well, it has been a horrific few weeks for Swans fans. ‘El Gaffer’, or the ‘Messiah’ to many, has left for pastures new! Roberto Martinez’s move up the career ladder to Wigan Athletic was seen to outsiders as an understandable move and equated it to the real world where people regularly leave a company for a pay rise and better prospects. This view however was not shared down here in South West Wales. To most Swans fans (myself included), the defection across the boarder turned Roberto from a Jesus-like figure into a Judas!
This opinion stems from a series of quotes Martinez made about his love for the club and his famous soundbite “I had to be forced out of Swansea City as a player and they’ll have to force me out as manager”. This quote was then built on with his crucifiction of players who left the club in the press, such as Lee Trundle and Andy Robinson, so Martinez’s departure smacks of hypocrisy and disrespect to the club that gave him his first chance in football management.Whatever your view on his departure, Huw Jenkins summed up the whole situation by stating “the loss of our manager and possibly our backroom staff has ripped the heart out of our football club”. The club rebuilt it’self around Roberto’s five year plan and now without the backroom staff and with a sqaud that only knows how to play in a continental style the future is now looking rather uncertain for the Jacks. The appointment of Paulo Sousa hopefully will bring stability and go someway to preserving the beautiful football Swansea fans have gotten used to over the past 2seasons. The road ahead is uncertain but if Sosa can fill the backroom staff with quality and get the players behind him Swansea City can again challenge for a top ten finnish.