Do I detect a sly smile in this? - Roberto Martinez

[danlanza]

“I believe we can keep him,” said Whelan.  “He will go eventually to a big, big club but there are much bigger clubs than Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion about. I am resigned to losing him but not just yet.”

thanks Dave there maybe bigger clubs than the Villa but there are certainly better managers for us than your Bobby ,

stick to egg chasing you red nosed .......

Twunt is the word i think you are looking for mate.

[LeeB]

Whelan really is a small time twunt. Stick him in the same file as Holloway.

And that spiteful, horse abusing, fat c**t Mick Quinn.

[Colhint]

Forget Wheelan, doesn't matter if he's a twat, Its what we think of Martinez. Just because Wheelan's an idiot doesn't mean that Martinez is. Our previous manager was a twat, don't mean that Gary Gardner is. Martinez is a good manager, he's young and seems to have learned his trade. Whether it was Lambert or Martinez who got Swansea up, or Bruce or Martinez who bought the best players. To my mind he has only been a manager for about 5 years so he is only just finishing his apprentiship. I bet there aren't many managers who are any good in their first 5 years.

Now his style of play is attractive, something we could do with. And people go on about Wigan always being in a dog fight and playing crap a the start of every season. Well I think that most seasons Wigan have to sell their best players, so he almost  starting from scratch, and by the end of each season they are playing better. We sold our best players and ended up crap at the end of the season.

[Billy Walker]

There may be bigger clubs than Villa, but not many. Martinez would be making a big step up to join Villa, from Wigan who are essentially pointless.

The North West and London don't really understand Midlands football and they certainly don't rate it in my view.  If Whelan sees fit to lump Villa and WBA as similar clubs not worthy of Martinez it says an awful lot about him and his parochial take on football.   

[Billy Walker]

Just bumping this up.  I'd be gutted if we totally ruled out Martinez.  What does he offer us?  He is now battle hardened to Premier League football, his teams play great football and he has contacts for up and coming players all over the place.  Have a read of this (which I've taken from Vital Villa); a nice bit of background on Martinez written by a Wigan fan:

russialatic - 21/5/2012 13:15

Well, its funny hearing so much about Wigan on a Villa forum.
I must say some of the posts are quite knowledgeable put others are....no comment.

A few bits of context to add:

Yes, we finished higher with Bruce in his final season, but in that team 4 players were crucial: Valencia, Palacios, Cattermole and Heskey - all were sold either in January or August. In the second half of that Bruce season we dropped like a lead balloon. Therefore Martinez came in with major rebuilding to do and without much money to spend. To say he's been backed financially is plain wrong. He's had limited funds from players that we've sold but has needed to massively cut the wage bill, which is what he's done.

It's taken time and if he'd have been at any other club he wouldnt have got that time. But the past 3 months of the season were absolutely brilliant. Never has a Wigan side played like that. It wasnt a lucky late escape as could be argued in previous seasons. It was Wigan playing and battering virtually everyone we played. We should have beaten Chelsea and others along the way too.

Finally, this stuff about Whelan and Martinez falling out is absolute rubbish. Whelan was upset after 1 display against Swansea when we simply didnt turn up. He went public. He then spoke to Martinez and that was it. Nothing more. And the two have a close relationship. As many of you will know, Whelan goes public with most things so to have 1 public criticism of a manager from Whelan in a season is a huge compliment....

Hope he stays. But I can see the job at Villa is more attractive than this time last year. McCleish was so unpopular that your expectations are much lower than they were and your tolerance levels are much higher, so I think you'd give Martinez much more time than you would have done before.

I really do think Martinez ticks all the boxes.

[The Situation]

I like Martinez too but unfortunately too many hypocrite Villa fans don't want him.

[Dave Cooper please]

I like Martinez too but unfortunately too many hypocrite Villa fans don't want him.

By hypocrite Villa fans do you mean ones that don't agree with you?

Martinez would be okay, and that's it, okay. he's keep us up, probably mid-table, but of all the candidates he's the least inspiring to me. I wouldn't be up in arms if we employed him but I don't feel that frisson of excitement when his name is mentioned.

[The Situation]

I like Martinez too but unfortunately too many hypocrite Villa fans don't want him.

By hypocrite Villa fans do you mean ones that don't agree with you?

Martinez would be okay, and that's it, okay. he's keep us up, probably mid-table, but of all the candidates he's the least inspiring to me. I wouldn't be up in arms if we employed him but I don't feel that frisson of excitement when his name is mentioned.

No the ones with the elitist attitude of "he's not good enough" "he's too inexperienced" "the job is too big for him" "he would be too much of a risk" yet have jumped on the Solskjaer bandwagon.

[bertlambshank]

I like Martinez too but unfortunately too many hypocrite Villa fans don't want him.

By hypocrite Villa fans do you mean ones that don't agree with you?

Martinez would be okay, and that's it, okay. he's keep us up, probably mid-table, but of all the candidates he's the least inspiring to me. I wouldn't be up in arms if we employed him but I don't feel that frisson of excitement when his name is mentioned.

No the ones with the elitist attitude of "he's not good enough" "he's too inexperienced" "the job is too big for him" "he would be too much of a risk" yet have jumped on the Solskjær bandwagon.

He told us to fuck off and now I am telling him to fuck off.

[Monty]

I like Martinez but I'd prefer Solskjaer.

[not3bad]

I like Martinez too but unfortunately too many hypocrite Villa fans don't want him.

I like to think that if Martinez did come to Villa people would get behind him.  And like any other manager starting, he would have the advantage of not being Mcleish.  I was fine with him taking over last year.

[Toronto Villa]

Martinez might find himself shut out of a very decent job at the end of all of this. He can then go back to having 73 fans watch his attractive brand of football, when it should be a lot more. He should pop into that old prick's office and thank him for continuously making such a wanker out of himself and hurting the bloke he claims to be looking out for. Twat.

[ozzjim]

Martinez would be my second choice now that Rodgers is out and OGS is my first. There is a good manager in there, but his choice of adviser could be better. He should have jumped at it last summer.

[Dave Cooper please]

I like Martinez too but unfortunately too many hypocrite Villa fans don't want him.

By hypocrite Villa fans do you mean ones that don't agree with you?

Martinez would be okay, and that's it, okay. he's keep us up, probably mid-table, but of all the candidates he's the least inspiring to me. I wouldn't be up in arms if we employed him but I don't feel that frisson of excitement when his name is mentioned.

No the ones with the elitist attitude of "he's not good enough" "he's too inexperienced" "the job is too big for him" "he would be too much of a risk" yet have jumped on the Solskjær bandwagon.

Then they aren't hypocritical are they, they just have a different opinion of the merits of the two managers than you.
The way I see it, we know all about Martinez and the way his teams only seem to be able to play anywhere near half-decent for about the last month of the season, we know his style and so can make a fairly informed decision on him.
 Solskjær on the other hand is a unknown quantity but has been schooled by the best and has made an exciting start to his managerial career albeit in an inferior league. there's a hint of something different about him. It may not work out, but it just might, and we just might be getting the next Fergie or Pep right at the start of his career.
 That for me is the risk and the anticipation and why I'm hoping Ole gets the job.

[Ian.]

I like Martinez too but unfortunately too many hypocrite Villa fans don't want him.

I like him a lot, he could be a great manager and I'm sure he could do a good job for us with cracking football. But I must be a real hypocrite because I really wanted the Anti-Christ of football (AM) to succeed for us.