Everton’s Roberto Martínez will not take Bill Kenwright’s support for granted

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/mar/03/everton-roberto-martinez-bill-kenwright

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Roberto Martínez has denied feeling under pressure at Everton but said he does not take for granted the support of the chairman Bill Kenwright.

Everton travel to Stoke City on Wednesday 11 points behind Mark Hughes’s side and only six points clear of the relegation zone having won once in 11 Premier League fixtures. Anything less than a win at the Britannia Stadium would leave Everton on their lowest points total of the Premier League era after 28 games and, adopting three points for a win, with fewest points at that stage of a season since 1926-27.

Martínez’s team have been unable to replicate their Europa League form in domestic competition but, despite growing criticism of the Everton manager and an acceptance that his team “are in a serious position”, he claims to be unaffected.

“Believe me, I have been in more difficult situations,” Martínez said. “I played in a game – Swansea City v Hull in 2003 – and if Swansea lost the club would have lost its professional status. It doesn’t get any worse than that because if you lose your status people lose their jobs around the club.

“We were 2-1 down after two mistakes and that is a pressure situation when you have 50 minutes on the pitch to get it right as a player. We won 4-2 and the football club never looked back. Ten years later they are in the Premier League, have won the League Cup, have a new stadium and are talking about a takeover worth £100m.

“Maybe it doesn’t look that way to the outside but we had moments of huge pressure at Swansea and at Wigan. Those moments help me because I can see the seriousness of a situation and it is a serious position we are in, but I look at our squad and believe me it is a lot easier to win games with this squad. I am very confident we will improve.”

Kenwright, Everton’s majority shareholder, vowed to listen to supporters when appointing David Moyes’s successor in 2013 but despite alarm increasing among fans at the club’s league predicament, Martínez insists he retains the chairman’s backing.

He said: “When you make a decision in becoming a manager of a club you take the chairman’s support into consideration but I would never take it for granted. I was always very aware of the support that I would get from the chairman. Bill Kenwright is a mad Evertonian who became a chairman. It’s not the other way round. He’s not a chairman that gets to know the football club.

“I had his support when we were flying in the league, I got his support when we were flying in Europe and I’ve got his support when we haven’t been able to get the wins we wanted in the league. It is just support and pain – because when you don’t win and you are a proper Evertonian we all feel pain.”