Martinez My winning secrets
Feasting on carbs to boost his brain power. Fining players who don’t get eight hours’ sleep.....
ROBERTO Martinez opens a small fridge in his office and pulls out a pack of what he says is cured Jabugo ham. ‘My brother-in-law is a butcher in my home town in Spain and he sends it over,’ he says.
It is, explains Everton’s manager, what he nibbles during the working day and part of a routine that is keeping weight off this 40-yearold and keeping him fit.
I suggest staying off the carbohydrates in the evening also works for men of our age. ‘Really?’ he says. ‘You’re not a thinker at night? Do you use your brain at night or not? Because you need the carbs if you want to think at night. I prefer to think at night.
‘In the morning it is more structured work. I operate more on caffeine. But in terms of going into greater detail, try it. Try carbs and try thinking at night and try it without carbs, and you’ll feel tired and you won’t see it. When you need to be mentally active you need carbs. Diet is very important.’
On a match day he employs a different routine. The mental fatigue one can experience at night is not such an issue. ‘I don’t have pre-match food because I want the blood to be in the brain and not in the stomach,’ he says. ‘That way the mind is sharp.
‘The body is clockwork; fascinating. But one thing that works for me might not work for you.
‘If you feel tired it’s because of something you’ve done differently. I need to sleep between sevenand-a-half and eight hours. I need to sl eep t o operate to t he maximum.
‘ I did my degree [ in physiotherapy] when I was playing football in Spain. I had to get home from training and start studying
One in 10 players in Spain is a nut. In England it’s the opposite
when other players were going to bed. I had to use my brain at night and that was when I discovered that I needed carbs.’
This, it quickly becomes apparent, is going to be an interesting conversation. Martinez could not be more friendly, more welcoming. But there is an intensity about the man that soon leaves you feeling he is managing you too.
Why, asks Martinez, are players like Everton’s talented midfielder Ross Barkley the exception? Why have so many of England’s most talented footballers — and we all know to whom he is referring — also been what he calls ‘ the naughty boys’?
The conversation, f or now, remains on the subject of carbs and how they fuel his marathon sessions in front of the television at home, when he will sit and watch football for hours. Even matches involving his players from years earlier.
Gareth Barry’s debut for Aston Villa, on May 2, 1998, for instance. ‘He played as a left-sided central defender,’ says Martinez. ‘These things help me learn more.’
The last time he gave this newspaper an interview, two years ago, he revealed an amazing home cinema room complete with 60inch pen-touch screen and ProZone software. He would lock himself away, studying matches in minute detail. Now, however, he boasts a new set-up he suggests became something of a necessity.
From his desk drawer he pulls out a yellow Post-it note and a marker pen and draws a diagram of his living room. There is an Lshaped sofa and two televisions on walls that meet at the opposite corner. He then explains how he and his Scottish wife can sit together, at the corner point of the sofa, while looking directly at their own TVs. ‘I sit watching football with my headphones on while Beth has the sound on watching whatever it is she wants to,’ he says. ‘But we are sitting together. That is the main thing. It has saved my marriage.’
The recent arrival of a baby daughter, Luella, has been good for the Martinez family too. ‘She’s as good as gold,’ he says. ‘It has changed our lives but in some ways it has actually made things easier. Our life is more structured now. 5pm is bath time. 10pm is bed.’
Sleep, structure. These are things that matter to Martinez. They are central to how he manages an Everton side very much in the race for the Champions League places and going into Tuesday’s Merseyside derby at Anfield — after this evening’s FA Cup encounter at Stevenage — having lost just twice in 22 Barclays Premier League matches. ‘There are certain things I won’t accept,’ he says. ‘A player must sleep for eight hours and if I can prove that he has not slept for eight hours he will get a fine.’
How can he prove it? ‘If there is a recording of someone in a night- club at 3am and he has to be in training at 10, he is not going to sleep for eight hours,’ he says.
When Martinez signed for Real Zaragoza at 16 he made such a commitment, promising his father — also Roberto — that he would not even drink alcohol. He has tried alcohol only once. ‘On my wedding day,’ he says. ‘I agreed to have a glass of champagne and I just downed it. Horrible.’
This is something his staff at the club acknowledge. If they are away in a hotel, a drink will not be taken by the coaching staff until after Martinez has gone to bed. ‘It is not because I demand it but because there is respect,’ he says. ‘Respect is important, but I don’t tell the players they cannot drink. It is about education.’
Education. Another Martinez buzz word. Part of educating his players has involved decorating the stairwell that links the dressing-room area at the club’s Finch Farm training ground to the players’ canteen with photographs from Everton’s glorious past.
Even one of the English champions of 1891. At the very top there is a blank canvas; a source of inspira- tion for the players who pass it every day. But there are also quiz nights for the away trips. ‘The theme of the questions is often about the history of the club.
‘I hope it inspires everyone here to want to win it again. How realistic that is right now remains to be seen but we should all have that aspiration. If you don’t have that vision and direction you will never get there.’
But Martinez does not see the same technical attributes in all English players, like in Spain. ‘I don’t blame the individual but the system,’ he says. ‘We’ve given our young players too much, too early. We say to someone of 18, “Yeah, you are going to make it as a top professional; so here you go, big contract”. So at 19, 20, 21, he’s going to go to the bookies, smoke, drink. I think the ones who don’t do those things are the exception, and doesn’t that say the environment is wrong?
‘In Spain, for every 10 great talents one is a bit of a nutcase, if you like. Here it is the opposite. When someone like Ross [Barkley] is the exception, we have to look at why.’