Roberto Martinez managed some really top players during his three-year spell at Everton.
Roberto Martinez had internationals across the board, and Everton actually finished fifth in the Premier League in his first season after joining from Wigan Athletic.
Romelu Lukaku, Gerard Deulofeu and Seamus Coleman were some of Martinez’s key players, to name only a few, so, to set the scene, they were a very good side.
And yet Martinez has just come out and said that one of his younger players at the time really stuck out amongst some very established first-teamers.
Everton midfielder Ross Barkley.
Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
Roberto Martinez was blown away by Ross Barkley when he was at Everton
Speaking on the Beast Mode On YouTube channel, Martinez reflected on his first impressions of Ross Barkley when he was a youngster at Everton.
“I remember we had a session where we had a recovery group and there were only four players on the the pitch and it was two very experienced players, Heitinga he was playing for Holland, reached a World Cup final,” Martinez began to explain.
“You had Jelavic, a very experienced Croatian, he played for Rangers, and he had a very good time at Everton, and we were playing with is a 2v2 with a very small spaces.
“It was a lot of quick actions and Ross Barkley was a young player. He didn’t really have a big role at Everton at that time. And we’re doing a session and he got two moments, the ball turned and he had a shot and he missed the target completely, and none of those two experienced players told him off.
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“You could see it was an incredible respect of saying ‘no, he can do that.’ He can take the gamble. Yeah. And that was a bit of a ‘wow’ that’s a young player that is not important in the team and it has the respect of the two most senior players that we have most experienced at international level.
“So I carried on following and everything was intuitive, such an expression that Ross had right and left. He could turn.
“He’s got a physicality that is not normal with the technical quality that he had. And at that moment was, wow, if he’s got the respect of these players, we need to keep an eye on what he can do.”
Ross Barkley cried when he left Everton
Barkley recently admitted that he cried when he left Everton for Chelsea in the 2018 January transfer window.
“I cried about leaving because of my love for the club. It changed my life. The support from everyone coming through — from the fans, to the staff who were father figures, to the kit men who I’d be in their room every day having banter, but then knowing that Everton weren’t going to have me in my prime, was difficult.
“But I had to make a decision because when I left, Everton were dipping. It was a little bit toxic at that point. There were lots of signings coming in and not doing so well. There was just so much change in a short space of time.”
Barkley didn’t have a very successful spell at Chelsea, but he’s since gone on to have a good career at a number of different clubs, and is now doing well at Aston Villa.
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