Toni Martinez may have been hoping that Phil Neville took the coaching role that he has reportedly been offered by West Ham United.
While Neville’s underwhelming coaching record – when you simply take a look at results, which may be harsh on the retired defender – may have left many West Ham fans pleased with the report that he will not be coming to the London Stadium, one player within the Irons squad may perhaps be slightly disappointed about Neville’s snub.
For the last few weeks, West Ham fans have been imploring Bilic to give Toni Martinez a chance, with the first-team strikers not exactly capturing the imagination and the 20-year-old scoring for fun for the under-23 side, but Bilic resisted the opportunity to hand him his Premier League debut.
Martinez had scored 11 goals in his previous 10 games for the youth side, so may, for selfish reasons, have been somewhat pleased to see a change of manager – but he may now be slightly disappointed about the news regarding Neville.
Martinez arrived in England from Valencia in 2016 around the same time that Neville had left his role on the coaching staff at the Mestalla.
Though Martinez did not make his first-team debut for Los Che during his time there, the London Evening Standard reported that he was on the cusp of getting a chance but that was scuppered by Gary Neville getting the sack during his brief time in charge of the La Liga side.
The fact that Martinez was close to earning a first-team chance suggests that Phil Neville would have known about his talent, and may have been one of the coaches who saw something in him before that chance was seemingly taken away as his brother was dismissed.
And Martinez may have been hoping that had Neville become a part of Moyes’ team with West Ham, his chances of immediately earning that first-team shot he surely deserves would have been enhanced.
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