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    Roberto - Kicking Every Ball, My Story so Far
    Roberto - Kicking Every Ball, My Story so Far
    Roberto - Kicking Every Ball, My Story so Far
    Ebook204 pages2 hours

    Roberto - Kicking Every Ball, My Story so Far

    By Roberto Martinez

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    About this ebook

    The autobiography of Swansea City manager, Roberto Martinez. From his background in Catalonia, his time in Wigan as one of the 'Three Amigos' and then his fabulous success with Swansea City, this is the colourful autobiography of one of the most respected managers in British football.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherY Lolfa
    Release dateSep 9, 2013
    ISBN9781847717696
    Roberto - Kicking Every Ball, My Story so Far
    Author

    Roberto Martinez

    Roberto Martínez is one of the world’s most revered football coaches. Previous honours have included a League One title with Cardiff City, and a famous 1-0 FA Cup win over Manchester City with Wigan Athletic in 2013. He managed Everton between 2013 and 2016, and is the current manager of the Belgian national team.

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      Book preview

      Roberto - Kicking Every Ball, My Story so Far - Roberto Martinez

      Roberto%20Martinez%20-%20Kicking%20Every%20Ball.jpg

      To my family,

      Roberto, Amor, Antonieta, Josep Francesc, Pau, and Beth

      for putting up with football throughout my life

      First impression: 2008

      © Copyright Roberto Martinez, Peter Read and Y Lolfa Cyf., 2008

      The contents of this book are subject to copyright, and may not be reproduced by any means, mechanical or electronic, without the prior, written consent of the publlishers.

      The publishers wish to acknowledge the support of

      Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru

      Cover photograph: Darryl Corner

      Cover design: Y Lolfa

      ISBN: 978 1 847710 857

      E-ISBN: 978-1-84771-769-6

      Published, printed and bound in Wales

      by Y Lolfa Cyf., Talybont, Ceredigion SY24 5HE

      website www.ylolfa.com

      e-mail ylolfa@ylolfa.com

      tel 01970 832 304

      fax 832 782

      Foreword

      It is a great thrill and privilege for me to write the foreword to Kicking Every Ball by my very good friend Roberto Martinez. We first met in our early teens when he was at Real Zaragoza and I was on the books of Barcelona. We played against each other many times in the Spanish Youth League and as time passed, respect for each other’s footballing abilities grew into friendship.

      When I was with Manchester United, Roberto was playing for Wigan Athletic and we would meet up regularly after training in a coffee bar or restaurant in Manchester to discuss tactics and put the football world to rights. He also helped me settle into the English culture and find my way around the English kitchen and cuisine. I have two sisters and since the development of that strong friendship in Manchester, I feel that Roberto is the brother I never had. We had keys to each other’s houses. He was Best Man at my wedding and is godfather to my son.

      While he was playing for Chester City, he went through a period of self-doubt about whether he should become a manager. He loved playing football so much; he was not sure whether he wanted to sacrifice the chance of playing again in order to be a manager. He knew that the challenge at Swansea City would be too demanding for him to combine management with playing.

      It was while we were discussing his next move that we had one of our very few differences of opinion. I believed it would be very difficult to manage a team where, as a player just a few months before, he had been out sharing jokes and meals with members of the squad. Roberto thought that the closeness he had established with the players would be an advantage, not a disadvantage, as he knew all their strengths and weaknesses as footballers. He also felt he knew their emotional and psychological make-ups. In the end, of course, he was proved right and moving back to Swansea City as their manager was an excellent decision for him, the club and the fans.

      Roberto has been so successful because he is a thoughtful and intelligent manager. He was exactly the same as a player. On the field he would never run without a reason. Every move he made was thought through and had a purpose. He has brought that same attitude to management. He has also instilled a similar perfectionist and professional viewpoint into his players. He has never drunk alcohol or smoked and he expects a commitment to healthy living from members of his team. In the build-up to games nothing is left to chance and he encourages professional footballers to eat and live sensibly.

      Football is Roberto’s life. When I have a day off, I must admit, I take the whole day off, away from the game. Roberto, on the other hand, is still living and breathing football on his free day. As a player he would spend it running and training in the gym. Most summers my family spend ten to fourteen days on holiday with Roberto and Beth. Since taking his new life in management, his summer time has reduced to four days and although we all enjoy a relaxing time together, Roberto will still make time to phone his chairman and keep in touch with what is happening at the club.

      What he has achieved at Swansea City as a manager is fantastic, although not unexpected. I know that he will do everything he can to achieve Premiership status for the club. It will not be easy. Sadly, money is a huge factor in determining whether or not clubs progress in the modern game.

      Of the twenty-four clubs in the Championship, there are probably eighteen with more money at their disposal than Roberto and Swansea City. Despite this I believe he will give his all to try and achieve this goal. He has already proved that he has a clinical eye for attracting good players to the club. His signings have been excellent because he is not just concerned about the playing abilities of potential signings. Roberto is also deeply interested in the psychological aspects of a player. Will he be afraid on the big stage and fail to perform? How will he fit in with other members of the team? Through careful and inspired scouring of the lower leagues in Spain and other countries, Roberto has landed players who have served the club well.

      I suppose that having spent twenty-five years of my thirty-four years in Spain, I feel, in spite of my Dutch passport, half-Spanish, especially as my wife and children are Spanish citizens. I am proud of what Roberto has achieved for Spain, for himself, for Swansea City and the other clubs for whom he has played. He is a positive, helpful individual, always prepared to support and encourage his friends. I am so glad to know him and outside of my family, I can consider him the most important person and influence in my life.

      Jordi Cruyff

      Introduction

      Thirteen years have now passed since I left the comfort of my native Spain. That’s a big chunk of anyone’s life but, as you can imagine, it is an eternity in a footballer’s life. During that period I have experienced a few shocks in culture and lifestyle as well as in football, where the biggest lesson to be learnt was that football is a matter of opinions and beliefs. There is no right or wrong.

      The Spanish have always followed the British game closely and have a respect for the league and the country that invented the game. In Spain the English league is known as the ‘Cathedral of Football’. I arrived in the English league with Wigan, open-minded and full of excitement about stepping into the unknown, but I never expected to find such a cultural difference between two footballing nations. During my time here I have discovered a huge difference in the way the game is played. Huge influences from many different markets have helped the British game to develop the Premier League – the best club league in world football at the present time – as well as the most structured and professional lower league set up within the game. In Britain I have met many of the game’s characters, huge personalities who have had to develop and adapt into a more professional role. Their survival in today’s modern day dressing room is a characteristic of the British game.

      Over the past thirteen years there has also been a big change in the lifestyle of the different areas of Britain in which I’ve been fortunate to live. When I arrived in Wigan the British city centre was typically just a work environment and the majority of the population lived in the suburbs. But gradually these city centres have become more cosmopolitan, with more of a European influence. The work environment has now also become a living and social space, with many and varied options in terms of restaurants and their wide-ranging cuisines, shopping areas and entertainment centres.

      I have spent the best part of the last five years living and working in Swansea, south Wales, where I can feel and see many similarities with the way we live in Catalonia. Both Wales and Catalonia are very proud small nations, used to battling to maintain their identity, where sport plays a major role in their self-expression. Both countries are very passionate, friendly and proud of their heritage and the institutions that their colours represent.

      Catalonians will be very jealous of the Welsh being recognised on the sporting front as a country in their own right and allowed to compete in official competitions such as the European Championships and World Cup. It is a battle that the Catalonians are slowly trying to win while playing their own ‘unofficial’ games on a yearly basis, displaying their own pride through the medium of sport.

      That sort of passion and determination is something we have worked hard to display at our own Liberty Stadium in Swansea, to give us a boost towards winning football games. It made a huge difference throughout our title-winning campaign last season and, already this season, as we have moved up to a new level with Championship football we have created some special football occasions where you could feel the pride of our fans enjoying the new era. The team has produced performances and results that have added new chapters in Swansea City’s history, with wins against the likes of Leeds United in League One, Cardiff City in the Carling Cup and against early league leaders Wolves in the Championship. Our progress has made many fans proud of Swansea City Football Club, of the city of Swansea and of Welsh football.

      As a football person I am very fortunate to be involved in a sport that is so important in terms of national pride and the role that it plays in the daily lives of local people and their families. This spirit spills over into the Swansea City dressing room, where the Catalonians and Basques within our squad, along with the Dutch, Irish, Trinidadians, Argentinean and English, can easily identify with the way life is lived in this part of the world, and that has helped them both as individuals and football players to settle in Swansea.

      It’s been a great challenge for our Welsh players to host all the nationalities, and bed them into our city and football club;

      a great responsibility to introduce all the different cultures into the Welsh way of life, making them feel at home and able to be competitive on the pitch with the help of our passionate fans. In turn Swansea City Football Club benefits from having very focused and hungry players who will give everything to win football games for our football club.

      The next few chapters are intended as a reflection of a life where happiness depends on winning or losing over 90 minutes. A life based on kicking every ball.

      Roberto Martinez

      October 2008

      CHAPTER ONE

      February 2007

      The Road Back To Swansea

      It was a week I will never forget. On the Tuesday night I played for Chester City in League Two against Bury. As I walked out onto the Deva Stadium pitch I remember thinking, ‘This may be the last game I ever play for Chester.’ The next day I was meeting Swansea City chairman Huw Jenkins to talk about the manager’s post there. For days the possibility of going back to Swansea had been playing around in my mind. Having been dismissed at the end of the 2005–06 season after three-and-a-half years at the club as a player, I felt there was unfinished business I needed to resolve. I also knew everyone at the club, I knew the fans, I knew the way they were thinking and I also knew what they wanted as a club. As I thought through the possibilities of taking the reigns at

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