When Everton’s players and officials prepare to arrive at St George’s Hall this evening, for the club’s annual end-of-season awards, they will be left under no illusions of mood surrounding the current state of affairs.
One man is likely to be absent from proceedings as, barring some belated boardroom intervention, he braces for the worst days of his managerial career; days that Goodison Park feared would never return.
But it should be Bill Kenwright, rather than Roberto Martinez, that is feeling the pressure more – the current mess, on and off the pitch, is entirely of his making.
The hundreds of disenfranchised fans set to protest in Liverpool city centre will doubtless ensure that Martinez is not the sole target of their ire, both tonight and during Sunday’s Premier League closer against Norwich City.
Amid the former Wigan manager’s failings in the Goodison hot seat, of which there have been many, he should not be forced to endure the savagery that lies ahead with the visit of a Canaries side only marginally more condemned than him.
Kenwright remains Martinez’s sole cheerleader and obstacle to ending the current indignity. Jon Woods, his deputy, clearly gave up the ghost after Liverpool’s third goal in last month’s Merseyside derby pummelling, publicly storming out of the Anfield directors’ box.
New majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri also appeared visibly uncomfortable as the theatre impresario gushed ‘What a manager’ on camera after Martinez managed to edge out Chelsea in March’s FA Cup quarter final win.
Even in his reduced capacity, the Everton chairman could still have spared both Martinez and the club’s long-suffering supporters the emotional toil that is currently unfolding. The warning signs were there midway through last season, when only a Wigan-esque clamber away from the drop zone delayed the current scenario being accelerated
Martinez’s time to be extricated with dignity has been and gone; missed in the wake of last month’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United – the culmination of a hellish week that had begun with a 4-0 thrashing at Anfield.
Further acrimony could have been avoided before fresh humiliations in the past week at polar opposites of the Premier League table, against Leicester City and Sunderland respectively. Yet, even on the steps of Wembley, Kenwright was extolling Martinez’s niceties to an unconvinced fan base.
That the Catalan could finally be deposed, little over 72 hours before the visit of Norwich is indicative of how Kenwright has run Everton. It has become a club fashioned in his own image; one which priorities popularity over progress.
Everton are seemingly devoid of both ambition; happier to pride itself on being head-patted by its Premier League peers than despised for its success.
Goodison will truly live up to its reputation as a footballing bear pit this weekend, should Martinez make it to Sunday’s dead rubber encounter. It will be toxic beyond recognition as Kenwright’s premiership threatens to claim it biggest victim.
Martinez now stands at the mercy of the Everton fans – and it won’t be pretty.
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