What should have been Roberto Martínez’s first day in his job ended in farce yesterday as a wrangle between his new employers and Swansea City prevented the completion of his appointment as Wigan Athletic manager.
The delay relates to compensation that Swansea are demanding from Wigan for four members of their backroom staff whom Martínez, who has already agreed a contract with the Barclays Premier League club, wants to follow him. The quartet are Graeme Jones, the former Wigan forward who was the Spaniard’s assistant at Swansea, Kevin Reeves, the chief scout, Oscar Brau, the fitness coach and Iñaki Bergara, the goalkeeping coach.
Wigan had been confident that compensation would be settled when they announced a press conference at the JJB Stadium for 1.30pm to confirm the return of Martínez, who made 188 appearances for the club between 1995 and 2001, to fill the void left by Steve Bruce’s move to Sunderland. Yet, despite being inside the building, Martínez was prevented from making an appearance after club officials could not contact Huw Jenkins, the Swansea chairman, to conclude the deal.
Brenda Spencer, the Wigan chief executive, said that the hitch had “frustrated” Dave Whelan, the Wigan chairman, who has agreed to pay Swansea about £2 million in compensation for Martínez. She promised that the matter would be resolved by next week at the latest so that the new manager could start planning for next season.
In November 2007, Spencer had to apologise when a press conference to unveil Bruce as manager had to be staged without him because of a financial clause that left Birmingham City believing they were owed money by the former Manchester United defender.
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“For those who came to the Steve Bruce press conference, this is a little bit the same,” Spencer said. “We have done the deal with Swansea for Roberto, but we hadn’t spoken with Roberto about the other staff until late on Wednesday.
“That’s when he mentioned the staff he would like to bring along. But at no time have Swansea come on to us about compensation for those staff. Now we’re going to have to liaise with them to try and get some compensation sorted out.
“I really don’t know the chairman of Swansea. I wouldn’t like to think he was doing it deliberately. We have tried the club and he is not there. We have tried his mobile and he’s not answering. We’re just assuming he is in meetings.”
Spencer insisted that Martínez’s position would not be affected by the issue. She added: “As everybody knows, Roberto is the chairman’s No 1 choice. Everyone at the club, including Mr Whelan, wants Roberto to sign on the dotted line. He’s very disappointed and frustrated.”