This is another in a series in which AJC reporter Doug Roberson will begin to look at Atlanta United’s possible player signings and managerial candidates ahead of their 2017 inaugural season in MLS.
You can follow Roberson for news about Atlanta United on twitter @DougRobersonAJC, and bookmark the paper's Atlanta United page.
Here is the series so far:
Liverpool's Kolo Toure, whoh has since signed with Celtic
Manchester United goalkeeper Victor Valdes, who has since signed with Middlesbrough
David Moyes, who has since signed to manage Sunderland
Turning to:
Roberto Martinez
ESPN analyst hinted in a tweet earlier this week that Martinez, formerly of Swansea, Wigan and Everton, was going to be Atlanta United’s first manager. Martinez is also a candidate at Hull City in the Premier League.
He was asked about Martinez’s future, and responded that he had better like Matt Ryan, who, of course, is the Falcons quarterback.
I’ve been unsuccessfully trying for days to contact Martinez and/or his agent.
Martinez is an interesting candidate for a lot of reasons. But to recap his resume:
Formerly a player at Swansea, he became manager and led the Swans to the League One title and promotion to the Championship for the 2008-09 season.
He left Wales for Wigan and the Premier League a year later.
He left Wigan following the 2012-13 season having led them to an FA Cup, but also relegation back to the Championship.
He left the Latics because he was offered the managerial job at Everton for the 2013-14 season. He was fired before the end of the 2015-16 season after a record of 61-43-39 (W-L-D).
Pros
Martinez has won trophies, an important note on any resume.
His hire could raise Atlanta United’s profile because of the TV work that Martinez does for ESPN and SkySports.
He may able to recruit players from Europe to join Atlanta United.
He is quotable and a good communicator.
He wants his teams to play an attractive, attacking brand of soccer.
He seems fairly adept at finding inexpensive players and turning them into profitable ones when sold.
He likes to play attacking soccer (more on that below), something Atlanta United President Darren Eales said he prefers.
Cons
Has no experience in MLS, something that has undone a few coaches who have crossed the Atlantic, including most recently Owen Coyle at Houston. There are exceptions. Steve Nicol did well at New England. Patrick Vieira is now doing well at NYCFC.
Has never coached in the U.S.
He seems like a manager who at times is just good enough to get a team into and out of relegation. Some of that is a reflection of Wigan’s low-tier financial status and how it affected their player recruitment compared to other teams in the Premier League. Of course, that won’t be an issue in MLS, but may not inspire confidence.
Talking to Wigan supporters as well as to Everton fans in recent weeks, the word that keeps cropping up about Martínez is “stubborn”. He either cannot or will not change his ways, even when results demand it. This is a manager who in his final season at Wigan said there was no need to look at the league table, it was better to assess how well the team were performing on the pitch. Wigan at the time were not performing well, and supporters were looking anxiously at the league table all the time. Then when the inevitable happened with defeat at Arsenal a few days after the Cup final, Martínez professed himself shocked and disappointed. “I never expected relegation, I didn’t see that happening to us at all,” he said.
Martinez was heavily criticized in his last season at Everton for a seeming inability to adjust tactics when they weren’t producing results. That was particularly true at Goodison Park, where the Toffees won just five league games at home last season.
Despite spending a lot of money on players, he couldn’t find a lineup at Everton that would produce results and the defense was terrible, particularly the past two seasons when they gave up 55 goals last season (just five teams gave up more) and 50 in 2014-15 (nine teams gave up more).
