Will the increasingly unpopular Roberto Martinez still be at Everton next season?

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There’s one team, more than others, which will look back on this Premier League season with huge disappointment – Everton. When Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur have both put together serious title challenges, and West Ham are challenging Manchester United and Manchester City for the fourth and final Champions League place, there are surely plenty of Everton fans wondering why this current Everton squad; one of their best in years on paper at least, isn’t further up the table challenging for more.

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The current group of players that Everton possess are easily capable of performing much better than they have been this season but the biggest problem isn’t the faces playing for The Toffees this season, it’s ultimately the quality of the manager. Roberto Martinez has a reputation for playing some elegant attacking football that he built during his time at Wigan Athletic. Defensively, however, he’s been found out this season, as he was during his final campaign at Wigan, which saw his side relegated from the Premier League.

Everton have conceded 41 goals in the league this season and they have dropped fourteen points from winning positions, most notably the 96^th minute John Terry equaliser at Stamford Bridge, although there are hardly a shortage of other examples to draw from. Everton’s defence is filled with talented international players but a lack of concentration and organisation this season makes them look like they’ve been told ten minutes before a kick-off who’s playing where.

The highest that Everton have finished under Martinez was fifth during the 2013/14 season, but it’s been argued this was built on the defence that David Moyes left before departing for Manchester United. During Martinez’s second season, the club finished 11^th and this season it looks like they are destined for another mediocre mid-table finish. The FA Cup could well be a saving grace for Roberto Martinez but a semi-final tie at Wembley against West Ham or Manchester United looks a big ask for Everton.

Under Martinez, it’s not all been doom and gloom at Goodison Park as we’ve seen the emergence of John Stones, although he has struggled in the second half of the season. Furthermore, Romelu Lukaku has become one of the most feared strikers in the Premier League and Ross Barkley has finally become the player he has promised to be for the past couple of seasons. Aaron Lennon has been highly impressive and has enjoyed somewhat of a re-emergence during the second half of this season.

Even with the positivity of the Everton attack this season, there have still been fans questioning some choices by Martinez, mainly his substitutions during games and the decision to regularly leave Gerard Deulofeu out of the side, even with him and Lukaku forming a deadly combination earlier in the season. Oumar Niasse was signed from Spartak Moscow for £13.5 million in January but he’s only been seen twice as a substitute, even though he’s a strong, quick, hard working attacker who could add some quality to an already talented forward line. A signing for that kind of money must raise questions if he is hardly even coming close to being utilised to his full potential.

The defensive area of the field is where Everton have been much worse this season and where Martinez has come in for much more criticism. Their inability to deal with high balls into the box has been one of Everton’s biggest weaknesses, which was highlighted in the recent match with West Ham. Leading 2-0, three crosses into the Everton box helped West Ham steal three goals and win the match 3-2. The level of football in the Premier League has been massively raised this season with the emergence of Leicester City along with stellar seasons from Tottenham and West Ham, and all things point to the Merseysiders slipping into the same defensive traps that Wigan Athletic fell into when Martinez was in charge.

The arrival of Funes Mori has certainly added more competition to the back line and helped eased the burden on the Everton defence and more specifically, John Stones. The young England defender has struggled following a great start to the season that has seen him linked with a £50 million pound move to Manchester City or even Barcelona. Stones has looked well off the pace since the turn of the year and you can’t blame Martinez for leaving him out for Funes Mori, who has become something of a fans’ favourite.

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On top of all this, there are other predicaments facing Roberto Martinez. Everton now have a new owner in Farhad Mushiri and the future of both Martinez and Everton will be top of the agenda before the Iranian billionaire writes out any multi-million pound cheques for new players or improvements at Goodison Park.

During the recent international break, Romelu Lukaku made his intentions clear about wanting to be playing Champions League football, and if the opportunity comes up this summer to join a club playing in Europe’s elite competition, then he will seriously consider a move. It’s quite surprising for a player to be so vocal about wanting a move but at the same time, it is refreshing for a player to be completely honest about the aims he has for his career. Other players such as Ross Barkley and John Stones could still see a move away from Goodison Park materialise with some of Europe’s biggest clubs pursuing the England internationals.

FA Cup glory and a push up the Premier League table in their last nine games may well be classed as a good season for Everton but the hostility that the Spaniard has faced this season for the team’s performances leaves plenty to be discussed at the end of the season for Farhad Mushiri and Bill Kenwright and whether they want to have Roberto Martinez lead the club through an exciting summer of spending and into the new season.

Featured Image: All rights reserved by Aleksandr Osipov