What matters is the journey and not the destination, the poet once said and it is a nice attack. In fact, it becomes even more beautiful when you do not achieve your goal, since it is a good argument to "entertain" your failure.
We do not know if Pedro Martins is reading Constantine Cavafy, but we know that he can claim that what he wrote is 100% true. Especially when through what you go through the journey, you reach your destination. Just like the Portuguese coach did, that is, who has been celebrating winning the championship for the last 24 hours with Olympic. He is celebrating the fact that he arrived at his destination, that is, although his greatest success is the fact that he managed to make the trip…
The last attack was written because the red and whites, as a logic / philosophy, have a big bad: They are impatient. So it was on Socrates Kokkalis and so it is now, probably to an even greater degree, with him Vangelis Marinakis. It is no surprise, therefore, that everyone considered the Portuguese coach παρα's stay last summer a surprise, despite the fact that he did not win a title in his first season. We have seen, after all, that coaches leave Piraeus even after winning a championship, how could his fate have been different? Martins;
The answer to this, obviously, has the president of Olympiacos. The rest, as neutral observers, can simply note as a triumph of logic the decision of Marinakis and as a triumph of Martins that he justified his president. And he justified it by gaining the recognition and appreciation of all Greek fans, since the team he presented this year was not only the best, the tightest, the most difficult or the most effective, but also the one that played the most beautiful football.
Not that his team was not seen last year. On the contrary, the red and whites were probably more pleasing to the eye than the champion PAOK last season, but they always lacked something. The forward who would score the opportunities they created, the leader who would make the difference when he had to, the absolute control of the coach over the football department so that he felt free to make any decision, everyone can focus where wants.
It is important that Martins showed since last year that he worked well, that he worked properly, but he did not avoid some mistakes, which also brought criticism. Like, for example, the fact that he had lined up in Toumba, in the match that essentially judged the title, the same team that he had three days before in a European match. Was this exclusively to blame for the 11ara from PAOK? No, but it was another push for criticism of the Portuguese, who had been in the spotlight earlier, when, for example, his team had been defeated by OFI. It was then that the majority asked for their heads from Marinakis, who, however, unknown how, decided that such a thing would be wrong.
Maybe because he saw or was made to see, that on the bench of his team he had a coach who worked well even during the games. His tactics, for example, at 3-1 on Milan which brought a great, historic qualifier, with Fortunis in a forward position and Guerrero as anti-Fortunis in that 4-4-2, showed that we were dealing with a coach who saw the field. And when that happens, it is a fact that sooner or later success will come. For Martins, the first, the "late", was valid, since he needed 100 matches on the bench of Olympiakos to become a champion, but this also makes his justification, his success, sweeter.
And the truth is that in these 100 games, we saw many different things to convince that the Portuguese is a really good coach. Some now claim that he is the best in these ten years of the presidency of Vangelis Marinakis. That is also possible. Certainly, however, he is the coach who was not afraid to admit his mistakes in practice, such as his insistence initially on Gianniotis in the position of goalkeeper, leaving out Sa. He understood it and corrected it. Like the fact that last year he tried different twins in his defense, until he realized it and corrected it this year as well.
He is also the coach who improves players. At Olympiakos, which "works" a lot on the issue of sales, since it has managed to make a good name in the circle of managers and to sell expensively, this plays a very big role. If the Tsimikas, for example, brings many millions of euros to the club's coffers, the "bravo" will belong to Martins. And he is not the only one who has improved Γ Guillermo constantly raises his standards, Kamara learns to play even further and in fact in the playoffs we saw him score two goals in a match (with Aris), Rajelovic is always reliable coming from the bench, so he works well to always be ready, El Arabi has become a killer who scores in every way (see the goal with the AEK in the playoffs), o Valbouena he has a good time in the team, he feels good and that goes out on the field, making all his teammates with his performance.
And not only that, because Martins proved to be a coach who does not hesitate to finish players, even if the management had bet on them when acquiring them. Typical examples, the Yaya Toure and Emre Mor. The former had come as the big name people had been adoring since his first term in the port, but when it seemed he could not, the Portuguese said "so far". The second came as a great talent, once he was compared to σι Messi, but when the coach saw that he had probably believed it and the Turk is of this level, he disappeared. "Lost" one player, won all the others. It is not difficult, as long as you see it, decide it and dare to do it.
And all this, he did while losing a player like him during the season Pontense, who was sold in January to the Wolves, while in the past he was also Meria, who had played in all the matches of the Champions League this year. Where Olympiacos stood with dignity against last year's finalist Tottenham, fought as hard as he could against Bayern Munich and overcame the Red Star, winning the ticket to continue in the Europa League, where he eliminated in the Emirates the Arsenal and has open accounts in view of the rematch with Wolves, aiming to qualify for the "8" of the event. As the champion of Greece now and possibly, since he is also in the cup final, a double.
What else would Pedro Martins have to do to prove that the trip is important and that he enjoyed it? Especially after arriving at the destination…