The Everton boss Roberto Martinez has refused to go too much into the statements made by Kevin Mirallas just ahead of the last weekend’s Merseyside derby.

Amidst all the excitement about the derby, Mirallas spoke to one of the Belgian dailies about his desire of featuring in the European Cup.  In that interview, the winger said he would not mind taking transfer to a club where he gets to play European games.

It’s not wrong for a professional player to talk about his aspirations and where he wants to go in future, – what pissed people off was the timing at which that statement came from Mirallas.  On the derby eve, everyone was thinking about the much hyped game. But, it seemed as if all that build up did not mean much to Mirallas and he was worried about his own future only.

Mirallas was already being criticized by the fans after the way he had insisted on taking the penalty kick the other day and had wasted it. You can see the video of the missed penalty and bet and watch the Cheltenham Festival races live at Paddy Power – head to paddpower.com.

Roberto Martinez, however, did not feel that it was wrong on Mirallas to come up with that sort of statement hours before one of the most important games for the Toffees. The Spanish manager was in the defence of his player.  Talking to the media at the end of the Merseyside derby which was a scoreless draw, Martinez said, “I think Kevin has been very, very happy at the club over the last few months. He trains with full intensity and then, on the pitch too, he goes hard. He always wants to contribute.”

“I can see where all the criticism is coming from. People are not getting over his penalty miss last month. He is on everyone’s target ever since.”