Roberto’s degrees of success with Swans

Jan 20 2008 by Chris Wathan, Wales On Sunday

EVEN the best laid plans can go to waste.

As meticulous as Roberto Martinez might be as a manager, Swansea’s Spanish boss will be this week preparing for a match with Doncaster rather than pitting his wits against compatriot Rafa Benitez and Liverpool.

But that won’t deter the captain-turned-chief from carrying on with a job in which he demands perfection.

Looking at his record as he approaches 12 months in the role, Martinez isn’t too far removed from that objective.

Played, 45; won, 27; lost, 8; goals scored, 83; respect earned, plenty.

Just last week, Sir Alex Ferguson gave young striker Fabien Brandy his blessing to head to the Liberty because of the way in which Martinez is doing things at Swansea.

And when was the last time a boss from these parts was linked with two top-flight jobs in the space of a few months? “We’ve been working on this for nearly a year now; a very intense period,” said Martinez.

“Whatever you do in South Wales it is always difficult to attract any attention from outside, but we’ve had it probably because of the way we’ve been playing our football and getting results.

“It’s taken enough time for people to take notice – but ask any big side when you’re being noticed, that’s when everyone is ready to knock you down.”

Martinez was speaking just hours after his side were knocked out of the FA Cup thanks to a humbling at Havant.

There was no room for self-pity with yesterday’s game with Port Vale fast-up, but Martinez was clearly hurt by the defeat.

“When you don’t expect it, football really punishes you,” he said. “But then it’s how you react to that disappointment; not how you take it, but how you react.

“You learn more from defeats; the structure, the players, the things that eventually allow you to win football games.

“But you don’t keep defeats in your memory – you keep the things that improve you.

“At the moment we’re in a situation where we need a lot of character and strength to keep going.

“When you are winning games it’s easy; when you’ve lost it’s then that you need everyone behind you.”

Still, that one result – embarrassing and disappointing as it may be – should not detract from the work Martinez has put in in his adopted home town.

Speak to any of the Swansea players and they will tell you how this man, never a Premier League player himself, has brought a top-flight attitude with him since he retired from playing at Chester to take his first managerial role last year.

Regular ice baths, players fined if they don’t get eight hours sleep, a greater understanding and awareness of tactics and playing the game the right way.

These things may not be revolutionarym but certainly evolutionary at a club that was for so long dwelling in the Dark Ages.

“I always knew what I wanted as a manager,” insisted the 34-year- old, who grew up in the environment of father, Roberto senior’s job as a manager at Segunda Liga sides Lerida and Balaguer. “You don’t need to have played in the Premiership to run the club the way it should be run. It’s important to know what you want to do. I’ve studied many managers, many methods, how they’ve run things, what has worked, what they think don’t, you need to be adaptable. That takes huge strength.

“We do things differently to anything in League One, perhaps many in the Championship and even some in the Premiership.

“But I always felt this club was unique from the moment I joined. We need to carry that on.”

Hardly surprising, then, that the man who has driven on with the latest changes at Swansea is different from many of his peers.

As a player with the club, he was often teased for his encyclopaedic football knowledge and how he would tip an unheard-of team to win a game in a distant league somewhere – and then be proved right.

In his spare time when a player with Wigan, the Catalonian studied for a degree in physiotherapy before gaining two post-graduates in business and marketing.

Not exactly run-of-the-mill stuff, especially for Swansea.

Officials with stadium sharers Ospreys have also noted how very often Martinez is the first man at the Liberty in the morning, yet still the last to leave.

“Things don’t happen by accident,” he said. “Everything needs to be worked on, everything needs to be planned, everything takes time and effort.

“I’ve said all along that I could guarantee I would give 24 hours of my time to this club. I have done and I will do for however long I’m in charge because that’s my passion. If I do something I want to be perfect at it.

“Of course, what I learned in my degrees has helped in what I’m trying to do now – it’s management at the end of the day.

“It’s a huge help in dealing with all the areas of the football club because football is a business, it’s no different.

“It’s important to have that bigger vision and be able to take certain aspects from outside that people don’t associate with football.”

He wants his players to embrace that same vision too. If they don’t, he wastes little time with them.

Martinez complains that it is too easy for young players to be given professional status without first understanding what that means or what it should entail, suggesting life as a Swansea scholar would be tougher than at most other clubs.

And when people sound surprised that he found time to hit the books as a player, he claims: “There is plenty of time – in Britain we almost expect players to train for two hours, go home and then go to the bookies or wherever.”

He has similar grievances with the drinking culture still in some aspects of our game, and almost sees Swansea – geographically one of the far-flung outposts in the Football League – as the place where he can help change some of the thinking about the sport.

Still, the thought of taking his personal crusade to a higher level doesn’t appeal to Martinez.

Tipped at one point for former club Wigan, Newcastle luminary Sir John Hall threw his name up as a ‘why not’ for the then vacant Toon role.

Even though he stated he would only leave Swansea if Swansea instructed him, surely ambition could one day force the issue?

“No, no, not at all,” he said. “Two years into my time with Wigan I had the chance to move to a Premier League club and I didn’t.

“I had played in the Primera Liga and when I came to Britain I was in League Two, but I always felt attached to challenges and projects.

“As a manager I’m the same. The next challenge is the next game and I want to improve our football club as much as we can, so in that respect I don’t get moved by managing in the Premier League.

“What moves me is being appreciated doing something that gives me pleasure – that’s what I want to do with Swansea City.

“My decision to retire from playing was to take a job with the only club I would have done with my attachment – that’s not going to change overnight.”