Having sacked Rafael Benítez on Sunday, Everton now need a new manager and Roberto Martinez currently seems to be on top of their wish list.
On Monday, Het Laatste Nieuws reported that Farhad Moshiri, the Toffees owner, has ‘no objection’ over bringing the former manager back to Goodison Park.
Another Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad state ‘now it’s serious’ as the Merseyside club want to make the 48-year-old Benítez’s successor.
It’s claimed Moshiri will ‘go to great lengths to bring in Martinez’ and the Belgium coach’s release clause is ‘not insurmountable’ for Everton, as it’s between €1m and €2m.
On a financial level, the Premier League side won’t have a problem paying this. However, the manager ‘can no longer be charmed’ with money alone.
Martinez wants an important project and in this regard, his priority is to manage Belgium at the Qatar World Cup. He is of the belief ‘abandoning’ De Rode Duivels would ‘seriously damage his impeccable image’.
At the same time, the Belgium manager is ‘flattered’ that Everton, who sacked him in 2016, are now showing interest in him.
Moshiri’s idea was to bring Martinez to Everton, while allowing him to retain his job with Belgium. He ‘wanted to think about it’, but the RBFA [Royal Belgian Football Association] have ‘said no’ because they don’t want their manager to have two jobs at the same time.
Het Nieuwsblad’s claims are different to what was reported by HLN earlier today. HLN said Martinez is not willing to ‘go to war’ with RBFA over a ‘concrete offer’ from Everton, and therefore the process looks over.
