Martinez 'Decision to not join Villa was the right one.'

[Rip Van We Go Again]

sportinglife.com

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez refuses to dwell on the past and believes Charles N'Zogbia, on his first return to the DW Stadium with Aston Villa, has to do the same.

The French winger left the Latics in the summer having played a major part in keeping them in the Barclays Premier League.

His record for Wigan was far from spectacular, with 18 goals in 90 appearances, but many of his performances were vital in their continued survival in the top flight.

Since his £9.5million summer move he has found the net once in 23 games and his displays have been patchy.

Martinez had the option to follow N'Zogbia to Villa Park at the end of last season as a replacement for Gerard Houllier but remained loyal to Wigan chairman Dave Whelan, who has so much faith in the Spaniard.

"You go past that when you make a decision. The decision from a human point of view was the right one," Martinez told Press Association Sport.

"I will never look back to that - and there is too much at stake at the moment to think about individual issues: my decision, when we sold Charles N'Zogbia.

"There are clear links between the two clubs but at the moment the game is so important for us and all that counts is to get the points we need to achieve our aim of staying in the Premier League.

"All the individual issues should be in the background."

[garyfouroaks]

We hadn't given it much thought Roberto as we watched Wigan's desperate relegation fight.

[Vanilla]

Upping sticks to manage a team possibly struggling against relegation with a small budget, from a team struggling against relegation with a small budget perhaps didn't sound that enticing.

[eamonn]

Except one has got vastly more resources than the other and is under-achieving. The other is, in the grand scheme of things, punching well above its' weight.

And he'd be trebling his money or more with us. No matter. Nice fella, good hair and teeth, tries to play football but not sure he would have been the right man for us.

[Greg N'Ash]

It was a sensible decision when you look back on it now. Keep Wigan in the premiership with no money and you're a hero- Fail, and no-one expects much better and you can carry on your career somewhere else with not too much damage done.

Keep Villa in the premiership with no money and its "So what?" Fail and you'll struggle to get a conference side for your next job.

I think he made the right call and i doubt he'd be doing better currently than the present incumbant anyway

[willywombat]

I agree with Greg, a win - win situation with Wigan would have been completely reversed had he taken the Villa job

[timeoutbigbar]

It was a sensible decision when you look back on it now. Keep Wigan in the premiership with no money and you're a hero- Fail, and no-one expects much better and you can carry on your career somewhere else with not too much damage done.

Keep Villa in the premiership with no money and its "So what?" Fail and you'll struggle to get a conference side for your next job.

I think he made the right call and i doubt he'd be doing better currently than the present incumbant anyway

Strikes of a lack of ambition to me.  Not that i'd particularly want him to be our manager.

[VillaSpen]

It was a sensible decision when you look back on it now. Keep Wigan in the premiership with no money and you're a hero- Fail, and no-one expects much better and you can carry on your career somewhere else with not too much damage done.

Keep Villa in the premiership with no money and its "So what?" Fail and you'll struggle to get a conference side for your next job.

I think he made the right call and i doubt he'd be doing better currently than the present incumbant anyway

Strikes of a lack of ambition to me.  Not that i'd particularly want him to be our manager.

I'd rather look at his decision to stay as a rare display of what passes for loyalty in the modern game. Sure, he stayed but he got a lovely wage increase and guaranteed himself at least a couple of season's worth of goodwill from the fans.

[timeoutbigbar]

It was a sensible decision when you look back on it now. Keep Wigan in the premiership with no money and you're a hero- Fail, and no-one expects much better and you can carry on your career somewhere else with not too much damage done.

Keep Villa in the premiership with no money and its "So what?" Fail and you'll struggle to get a conference side for your next job.

I think he made the right call and i doubt he'd be doing better currently than the present incumbant anyway

Strikes of a lack of ambition to me.  Not that i'd particularly want him to be our manager.

I'd rather look at his decision to stay as a rare display of what passes for loyalty in the modern game. Sure, he stayed but he got a lovely wage increase and guaranteed himself at least a couple of season's worth of goodwill from the fans.

Is that what he told Swansea?

[PeterWithesShin]

He stayed because Wigan is his club. I posted this a while ago and always seems to need reposting whenever Martinez is mentioned.
--------------------------------
I'm currently reading Northern Soul which is about Wigan and their first season in the top flight. It's quite interesting, and had these snippets which may be of interest/relevance to us.

As well as covering that season, there are a few flashbacks, one of which was about when Wigan signed the 3 Spaniards and the author spoke to Martinez who was playing for Swansea at the time (2006) and he said this. "The chairman said he had a five-year plan to get into the Premiership, in the end it took ten and my only regret was that I never got the chance to play for them when they got there. That would have been special. To me Wigan Athletic will always be my club, always be in my heart".

[timeoutbigbar]

Call me sceptical but I wouldn't consider loyalty in the PL.  If Wigan get relegated, regardless of previous quotes, he'll be gone, if Wolves stay up then probably to them in the summer.

[PeterWithesShin]

Do you think Ian Taylor would quit on us if he was manager and we were relegated?

[brian green]

In three years time Martinez will be in a better job than McLeish.   The Spaniard was playing the long game.

[LamBeast]

Martinez is a bright chap,McLeish is a championship manager,Simple stuff.

[mrfuse]

Martinez is a bright chap,McLeish is a championship manager,Simple stuff.

Really ....You think McLeish is that good?