A few days after cutting ties with Marc Wilmots in the wake of dishonourable failure at Euro 2016, the Belgian Football Association took the unusual step of posting an advertisement on its website inviting applications for the role of manager of the national team. Inevitably hundreds of spoofers sent CVs that included fantastic achievements such as guiding Norway to World Cup glory in a computer game or beating Barcelona 10-0 on Fifa. When, in early August, Belgium revealed the identity of the successful candidate – Roberto Martínez – many people’s first reaction was to wonder whether that was also a wind-up.
In at least one respect Martínez seems like a badly wrong answer to Belgium’s problem. The affliction in recent years has been an inability to forge the most talented squad in their history into an organised and clear-thinking team. Martínez, whose reign will kick off with Thursday’s friendly against his native Spain, was sacked by Everton in May for a similar offence.
At Goodison Park he guided a squad he described as the most gifted in the club’s history to successive bottom-half finishes in the Premier League, campaigns during which he rarely found a balance between attack and defence, leaving Everton like charging soldiers continually tripped up by their own falling trousers. With that misadventure so fresh in the memory, it was a shock when Martínez was chosen, especially after word got out about inquiries from Marcello Lippi, who won the 2006 World Cup with Italy, and Louis van Gaal, who reached the 2014 World Cup semi-final with a Holland side less skilled than this Belgium one.
The list of candidates was not quite as sparkling as might be expected for a country ranked No2 in the world, owing to the lack of appeal of international management to top club managers and the smallness of the Belgian association’s budget compared with bigger but lower-ranked countries, the salary being less than £1m per year. Lippi and Van Gaal were too expensive. The three preferred Belgian options were unavailable, as Michel Preud’homme and Hein Vanhaezebrouck are contracted to Club Brugge and Gent respectively and Eric Gerets insists he is happily retired at 62.
The selection committee held talks with four candidates: Martínez, Dick Advocaat, Rudi García, the former Lille and Roma manager, and Ralf Rangnick, formerly of Schalke and now director of football at Leipzig. Apparently Martínez, whose ability to talk a good game has never been in doubt, aced his interview, with one member of the selection committee, Mehdi Bayat, revealing “he was the unanimous choice thanks to his charisma and knowledge of football”.
Martínez helped to demonstrate his knowledge by giving the committee a video presentation of Belgium’s past tactical shortcomings. He did not include footage of Everton’s past tactical shortcomings, an omission that could be construed as another failure to find an appropriate balance.
Belgium’s selectors, who want the new manager to help foster a playing style across all age categories, factored in Martínez’s contribution to the rise of Swansea City and also his partial success at Wigan Athletic, where a novel switch to a 3-4-3 formation helped avert relegation in 2012 and, of course, he delivered FA Cup victory in 2013. Although he ultimately took Wigan down, Belgian selectors have seen enough to convince them he has the knowhow for which several Belgian fans and several players called after the Euros. Jan Vertonghen, for example, said after Wilmots’ departure that “what we need above all is someone who is very strong tactically”.
Martínez’s credentials after seven years as a Premier League manager have to be seen in contrast to those of Wilmots, who had had only a few months in charge of Schalke and Sint-Truiden before landing the Belgium job.
It was interesting to hear Bayat refer to another of the qualities detected in Martínez. “He is able to communicate with this generation while also removing them from the cocoon in which they’ve become locked,” he said, adding an indirect reference to Wilmots by explaining: “Players must understand there is a boss at the head of the national team, not a friend.” Frosty relationships with Everton’s Belgian forwards, Kevin Mirallas and Romelu Lukaku, did not count against Martínez.
The new management’s authority with the players should be strengthened by the appointment of Thierry Henry as one of Martínez’s assistants, along with the Spaniard’s customary No2, Graeme Jones. It was Rangnick who mooted the idea of bringing Henry on board and the association, despite deciding against hiring the German, put the proposal to Martínez, who agreed.
“If you can get somebody like Henry, who has a fantastic record and had to know how to deal with everything to become one of the best in the world, then you have to do it,” said Eric Van Meir, the former Belgium defender whom the association also considered inviting to be an assistant before learning he could not combine the role with managing Lierse. A pity, perhaps, as it may be useful for Martínez to be supported by someone with defensive expertise.
“One thing is for sure is that Henry will get a lot of respect and maybe Marc Wilmots did not get enough,” Van Meir said. “The newspapers claimed Marc Wilmots was always telling the players about how he won the Uefa Cup as a player with Schalke, but for players like Hazard and Courtois that is nothing. It is important for this generation to be talked to by someone who has achieved more than them.”
Perhaps Belgium’s best hope is that France’s record goalscorer turns out to have the coaching prowess to hone the instincts of forwards such as Lukaku, Christian Benteke, Divock Origi and Hazard, none of whom has translated rare natural attributes into regular goals for their country. Then maybe Belgium can outscore even the best opponents.
