I think Martinez has been badly let down by some players this season, but at this point, there's not a lot he can do. People will point to January and ask why he didn't spend then, but given the overhaul the squad is going to require in the summer, I don't think he had that option. We simply could not afford to spend a load of money in January knowing that 6 months later, we will need to spend massively again.
Howard, Hibbert, Distin, Alcaraz, Garbutt, Barry, Osman, Gibson, Pienaar, Mirallas, Kone, McAleny, Atsu, Lennon...
That's 14 players who will most likely need replacing come the summer, and that's not even taking Eto'o into consideration, who already left without being replaced.
Some of these positions will be back filled with youngsters taking squad places of players who have barely contributed, and some of the more promising youngster pushing for starting places.
But that still leaves a huge amount of bodies that we will need to bring in, to bring the squad up to speed.
Obviously, of those listed, a couple will probably stay on as back up, especially if we are desperate, but the majority of these players listed are either too old, too injury prone, or whose performances have begun to wane to a point they are no longer reliable over a full season.
Of those who are likely to go, only Mirallas will command anything like a reasonable fee that can be reinvested, and though we will save a lot in wages, we will still to need spend an awful lot to get us up to speed.
But this was always going to happen. Martinez inherited his squad from Moyes, and he has only really added Lukaku, Besic, Mccarthy, McGeady and Joel to what he had before (not including players listed), who are all younger, talented players that can, with the addition of Barkley, Stones Oviedo and Coleman, go towards creating a strong core of our next team. But it was always going to take time, and we are in a transition period.
Last season was great, but in some ways, it was the worst thing that could've happened. Martinez claim to Kenwright that he would deliver Champions league football was an eventual goal that Kenwright made public, much to Martinez apparent discomfort, as he will have known himself it would take time.
But the performances last season have led the fans to believe we where basically already there. And that has placed too much pressure on the team this season, when it was always going to be almost impossible to keep up the form from last year, as well as adapting to balance the strains of both the league and European competition.
But even Martinez will have not expected this collapse. And as already pointed out in a couple of fantastic posts, there have been a number of contributing factors. None of us are privy to the team talks he gives, but I'm pretty sure none of them will include instructions to Howard to [Poor language removed] up twice a game, or for Jagielka to start the season badly, or for Rom to miss chance after chance in games we need to win, or for Stones and Mccarthy to get long term injuries, all just so we can test the teams resolve...
Martinez has been badly let down by a number of players this season, and while he is not infallible, I for one, would still like to give him the benefit of the doubt, and my support, at least into next season. I still believe he can turn it around, and i hope he goes on to prove a lot of people wrong.
