Ranking Tottenham Hotspur managerial candidates
By Gary Pearson
2. Roberto Martinez
The current Belgian gaffer is in pole position to land the job. He promotes a free-flowing, enterprising brand of football, and he’s got bundles of experience at every level of football management.
Charismatic and particularly communicative, Martinez is a player’s manager. He clearly conveys his message to the players and is well liked among his peers. However, Martinez endured a difficult time as Everton’s gaffer, leaving the club after showcasing an inability to shore up the side’s porous defence. Martinez led Everton to a fifth place finish in his first season on Merseyside. He followed that impressive campaign with two successive bottom-half finishes, which ultimately sealed the Spaniard’s fate.
All of his other management positions were with second-tier sides, including stints at Wigan, Swansea, Chester, Walsall and Motherwell, to name a few. But it was the incredible job he did at both Swansea and Wigan that put him on the managerial map, turning him into a desirable commodity for the likes of Everton.
Martinez won’t be available until after the European Championships, which initially posed a major problem for Tottenham, who were keen on finding a quick replacement for Jose Mourinho.
Since then, though, they have changed their stance and are more willing to show patience. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that their top two candidates — Julian Nagelsmann and Erik ten Hag — rejected Spurs’ advances.