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-year-old and keeping him fit.
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The sky is blue: Not many expected Martinez's impact to have such a positive effect so soon
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Ambitious: Everton manager Roberto Martinez is aiming to take the club into the Champions League this year
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.
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Impressive: Everton have lost just two league games so far this season under the management of Martinez
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All smiles: Martinez sits with Everton chairman Bill Kenwright during his unveiling as the club's new manager
‘If you feel tired it’s because of something you’ve done differently. I need to sleep between seven-and-a-half and eight hours. I need to sleep to operate to the maximum.
‘I did my degree (in physiotherapy) when I was playing football in Spain. I had to get home from training and start studying 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.
He destroys the carb-free evenings idea in about 30 seconds and over the next hour-and-a-half provides a fascinating insight into his methods as well as expressing some challenging views on the culture of English football.
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Putting mind into work: Martinez in his office at the Everton training ground
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Star man: Everton right back Seamus Coleman has been one of the Premier League's standout performers
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, for 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 about them.’
The last time he gave this newspaper an interview, two years ago, he revealed an amazing home cinema room complete with 60-inch 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.
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The halls of history: Martinez wants to bring the glory days back to Everton, but with a measured approach
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 L-shaped 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 Saturday night'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.’
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Talent: Martinez has laughed at the suggestion Barkley (pictured) could leave Everton this month
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Rivals: Martinez and Moyes stand on the touchline during Everton's visit to Old Trafford earlier this season
How can he prove it? ‘If there is a recording of someone in a nightclub at 3am and he has to be in training at 10, he is not going to sleep for eight hours,’ he says. ‘Sleeping for eight hours is part of your commitment to being a professional footballer.’
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.
‘My dad was a footballer and a manager; he was my hero,’ he says. ‘But when I was offered the chance to move two hours away, to Zaragoza, he said it was the worst thing I could do. He said I’d start drinking, stop studying, start smoking, thinking I’d made it. I promised I wouldn’t. I said I’d finish my education, which I did. And I still don’t drink.’
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.
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Finally! Romelu Lukaku, Seamus Coleman, goalscorer Bryan Ovideo, Gerard Deulofeu and Kevin Mirallas (from left to right) celebrate Everton's first win at Old Trafford in 21 years
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Famous win: Having scored the winning goal (left), Ovideo is carried on the shoulders of defender Sylvain Distin
‘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.
‘I decided I didn’t want to do anything that works against my body. The day after drinking you are not the same person. You are not thinking the same, you can’t reach the same level. You are not going to be at your best.
‘But I don’t impose a ban. I just explain effect on performance, the increased risk of injury.
‘I also recognise, though, that in life you need to be happy. If you want to have a drink and someone stops you from doing it, that will only have a negative effect. So I leave it up to them. 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 inspiration for the players who pass it every day.
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Ecstatic: Striker Romelu Lukaku lets his emotions show, while James McCarthy also celebrates the victory
But there are also quiz nights for the away trips. ‘The theme of the questions is often about the history of the club,’ he says.
‘It makes no sense not to understand the history of the football club. When I got this job in the summer I read up on Everton. But I soon realised that not all the players knew their history. Not everyone knew who Dixie Dean was, for example. I think it’s important to know the history and appreciate what a privilege it is to play for a club like Everton. When you climb those stairs you see big moments in the history of the club.
‘And they realise that as a player they can become part of that. Everton have won the title nine times. Not many football clubs have done that, and not many players here would have realised that.
‘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.’
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Know the club: Martinez admits some players did not know who Everton legend Dixie Dean was
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Positive: Martinez has changed the way Everton think and fans believe the club will achieve something special
Martinez has embraced the club’s history in other ways. He has spoken to Howard Kendall. He plans to speak in more detail to Joe Royle. He also had a chat with David Moyes when he succeeded the man now struggling to manage change at Manchester United.
The situation Martinez inherited at Everton was not entirely dissimilar to the one Moyes encountered at Old Trafford. For a start, here was a group of players used to working under a manager who had been at the club a long time.
‘I had to be aware that they had enjoyed success here,’ he says. ‘So I wanted to change things without losing anything. That meant it was as important for me to adapt to them as it was for them to adapt to me.
‘It’s trying to find common ground, and here the common ground came through aspiration. We wanted the same thing. I’ve been very fortunate with the senior members of the group. They are top professionals. Much of the credit has to go to the players for being prepared to try different things with real professionalism.’
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Learn the history: Martinez has this picture in his office, of him and former Everton boss Howard Kendall
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Reverse the trend: Liverpool fans mock Everton for not having won a trophy for 18 years
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Silverware: Martinez celebrates with the FA Cup after Wigan's win over Manchester City last term
But Martinez does not see those same attributes in all English players, especially some of the younger ones. ‘I don’t blame the individual but the system,’ he says. ‘I am very passionate about English football. I have spent 19 years of my life here. And I feel we are all responsible.
‘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. But, as I say, I don’t think you can blame the individual. I think it’s a problem with the system here. The system, to develop a young player, is not demanding enough.
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Under control: Martinez is used to having a supportive chairman, as he did with Dave Whelan at Wigan
‘From the start to 18, we are the best in the world. Maybe too good. With the academies, with the facilities, too good. We give them too much. We even bring the teacher into the academies, so they don’t have to go to school. Too easy. But the development from 19 to 22 is definitely not good enough. The FA and the Premier League are trying to address it. They are doing some great work. But we are not there yet.
‘The environment, particularly the Under 21 league, is not competitive enough. Big professional contracts are being given way too soon and the environment they are in is wrong.
‘Sometimes a club then tries to develop a player by sending him out on loan. But then he is out of your hands, possibly working a different way.
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Support: Barkley is becoming one of England's hottest prospects, and Martinez has helped him along
‘I worked with Tom Cleverley at Wigan. Before coming to us he had been in the lower leagues at Leicester and Watford. That journey was such a risk. Anything could have happened to him.
‘In Spain they found a solution with the B sides. I’m not necessarily saying that is the solution for this country but we need to find something equivalent for players of 19 to 22.
More competitive, with everyone playing for a team at their club that has an identity, a way of playing, with its own manager and coaching staff. A professional set-up and an environment where only the best will get through.
‘I would make it compulsory, across the board, that these boys can only earn 10 per cent of what they will earn as a first-team player, and they would only get that money once they had played a certain number of first-team games.
‘When someone like Ross is the exception, we have to look at why. Don’t you think we are all at fault?’
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