Roberto Martínez

Roberto Martínez

Personal information
Full name	Roberto Martínez Gutiérrez
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Swansea City (manager)

Roberto Martínez Gutiérrez (born 13 July 1973 in Balaguer, Catalonia) is a Spanish former professional footballer and is currently manager of Swansea City. He played for a number of British football clubs, including Wigan Athletic, and was captain of Chester City and Swansea City.

In June 2009, Martinez was allowed permission to talk to Wigan Athletic over the vacant managerial position. Martinez is set to become the Wigan manager soon.

Martínez played as a midfielder and began his career at lower league Spanish side CF Balaguer. Two years later he went to English Division Three side Wigan Athletic. Becoming part of a small Spanish contingent at the club, alongside Jesús Seba and Isidro Díaz, he was a regular first team player for six years – the longest period of time he spent at a club. In 2001 he moved to Scottish side Motherwell on a free transfer but he failed to break into the first team. He switched clubs the following year, this time to Walsall, but again he played infrequently.

This prompted a move to Swansea City; in his first season Martínez was chosen as the team captain and helped the Welsh side avoid relegation from The Football League. He formed an important part of the team from 2003–06, making 122 league appearances and captaining them to League Two promotion in 2005. He moved to Chester City, again playing as captain, but in 2007 former club Swansea City approached Martínez, offering him the position of manager. He accepted the offer and soon brought success to the team, winning three consecutive Manager of the Month awards. He took Swansea to the League One title in the 2007–08 season, taking them back to England's second tier division after a 24-year absence.

Career

Playing

Martínez began his career at his home-town club CF Balaguer in the Spanish Third Division before moving to Real Zaragoza in La Liga where he made his senior debut. He was offered the chance to move to England by Dave Whelan, chairman of Wigan Athletic and he signed on a free transfer on 25 July 1995 , becoming one of Wigan's famous 'three amigos' alongside Jesús Seba and Isidro Díaz. Martínez spent six seasons at Wigan, making 180 appearances for the club (with a further 47 as substitute), scoring 23 goals. He was affectionately known as 'Bob' to the local fans, who were far from used to having foreign players in their team back in those days.

Released on a free transfer, Martínez signed for Motherwell on 3 July 2001 but made only eight appearances (plus eight more as substitute) in Scotland before joining Walsall on a free transfer on 13 August 2002. Again, he did not feature regularly, starting just one game for Walsall and making five substitute appearances - though still managing to get sent off twice during his short spell in the First Division.

On 31 January 2003, Martínez joined Swansea City on a short term contract until the end of the season, becoming the captain and helping to preserve the club's Football League status despite a brush with relegation. Martinez was part of the infamous team which secured safety from relegation out of the football league on the last day of the season. On 23 June 2003, Martínez made a permanent move to the Welsh club.

To the end of 2005-06 season, he had made 111 appearances for Swansea City (with a further eleven as substitute) and had scored four goals. On 30 May 2006, Martinez was released on a free transfer by Swansea City.

Roberto joined Chester City on a free transfer, signing a two year contract. He made his pre-season debut against Huddersfield Town playing for 90 minutes on Saturday 29 July 2006, with his league debut following seven days later against Accrington Stanley. As at other clubs, he became a popular figure with supporters and enjoyed a spell as club captain. His last game for Chester came in their 1–0 win over Bury at The Saunders Honda Stadium on Wednesday 21 February 2007, as he accepted the manager's job at Swansea City.

Martínez is also known to viewers of Sky Sports' coverage of Spanish football: he is a regular studio guest who, despite having been resident in the UK for over a decade, speaks with a degree of authority about the game in Spain.

Managerial

He became Swansea City manager on Saturday 24 February 2007. Although he has not formally retired from playing, Martínez seems to be focusing on his managerial duties and does not have a squad number with Swansea.

He won manager of the month for October 2007 by leading his team to four wins in four in the league including a 5–0 win and a 4–1 win over Leyton Orient and Bournemouth away from home. Then won it again in December after a thrilling 3–2 win over Leeds at the Liberty Stadium. Martínez won his second and third consecutive manager of the months in January after a second 4–0 win away from home this season, against Doncaster. He was also nominated for the February prize but lost out to John Ward manager of Carlisle United. In May 2008, Martínez was awarded the League Managers Association's manager of the year award for League One after leading Swansea City to the title.

The 2008–09 season saw Martínez preside over Swansea's first game in England's second tier division in 24 years and it began poorly with a 2–0 defeat away at Charlton. Since then, Swansea's form improved, losing only 4 games out of the next 30. By January 2009, the team had scored a number of key league victories against opponents such as Reading and Wolves. Martínez also took the team to a 2–0 win against Premier League side and the defending cup holders Portsmouth in the FA Cup.

In June, both Celtic and Wigan Athletic asked Swansea for permission to speak with Martínez regarding new managerial positions at the clubs. On June 4th Wigan were given permission to speak to Martínez about the vacant managers job and have said they will have a deal soon.

Statistics

Manager

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	W %
Swansea City	25 February 2007	Present	125	63	37	25	51.22

As of 4 June 2009

Honours

As a Manager

Football League One

• Champions - 2007–08 (with Swansea City)

External links

• Roberto Martínez at Soccerbase
• Roberto Martínez management career statistics at Soccerbase