What follows is possibly* a conversation that was overheard coming away from the DW Stadium last Saturday…
(Bloke 1) “That bloody Martinez, comes over here and runs the club like it’s his own and doesn’t pay a blind bit of notice to how we want the team to play. He’s an arrogant sod who doesn’t know what he’s doing and tries to flannel us with nonsense about looking for positives in everything.”
(Bloke 2) “Yeah, we should start a campaign, we’ve give him all that time Whelan’s give him all that money and he’s not taken us to the next level. What’s he ever done for us?”
(Bloke 1) “Yeah, what’s that Martinez ever done for us?”
(Passerby 1) “Well he’s kept us up three times”
(Bloke 1) “Ok, he’s kept us up…”
(Passerby 2) “Didn’t he turn Villa and Liverpool down to stay with us?”
(Bloke 2) “Oh, Yeah, he did that too”
(Passerby 1) “And didn’t we turn a profit last season?”
(Bloke 1) “Suppose he’s kept us in the Premier League three times, stayed with us when he could have gone to a bigger club with more money and helped make us profitable, but apart from that, what’s he ever done for us?”
(Passerby 3) “Well he’s respected the fans, bigged us up for coming rather than going on about them that don’t turn up”
(Passerby 2) “And he’s built up that tight knit, small club feeling that we used to have, celebrated us for what we are rather than tried to turn us into something we’ll never be”
(Passerby 4) “Yeah and he’s got people talking up the football we play as much as they talk about the empty seats in our stands.”
(Bloke 1) “Right, right, but apart from premier league survival, loyalty, financial stability bringing the club closer to the fans, improving the club’s image and getting people talking about how good our football is, what’s he ever done?”
(Passerby 5) “Well didn’t he get us our first win against Man U?”
(Passerby 4) “And our first at Anfield, and against Chelsea and Arsenal in the League”
(Bloke 1) [shakes his head] “You’re not listening, what’s he ever done apart from beating big clubs, keeping us up on a shoestring, making it feel like Latics are our club again, improving our image and playing football that has people paying attention to us…”
(Passerby 6) “Well there’s all those young players he’s brought in that aren’t looking for a new club as soon as they’ve booked into Wrightington Country Club”
(Bloke 2) “Apart from that”
(Passerby 7) “He’s started to pay more attention to the youth team, bringing in lads to plug the gap we’ve got from not developing our own players, so hopefully we can start to bring players through like McManaman, Golobart and Mustoe”
(Passerby 8) “and he’s convinced Whelan to invest in an academy so that we can start to bring through our own players for years to come”
(Bloke 1) “Yeah, well, ok, he’s kept us up three times, reduced the wage bill so we’re profitable, beat the ‘big four’, stayed loyal when he’s had big paydays waved at him, improved the image of the club, got people talking about our football, brought back that close-knit feeling, bought players that want to stay around longer than one contract, invested in the youth squads and convinced the chairman to invest in the club’s long term future…”
(Bloke 2) “…But what’s he ever done for us?”
{youtube}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ{/youtube}
*or possibly not
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