In the course of a long conversation with Roberto Martinez there is only one moment when a tiny flicker of pain, or maybe it is confusion, flashes across his face.

In the course of a long conversation with Roberto Martinez there is only one moment when a tiny flicker of pain, or maybe it is confusion, flashes across his face.

It is when it is when he is asked about the way some Rangers fans feel towards Steven Naismith.

It is not an exaggeration to say Martinez, the Everton manager, feels blessed to have a player like Naismith at his club. ??He has become a big player, not just for us but in the Premier League,?? he said in an exclusive interview for The Herald.

Martinez inherited Naismith when he became Everton manager in the summer of 2013, but he first watched him play six years earlier, for Kilmarnock. The Naismith of 2006 and the Naismith of 2013 bore little relation to each other as players. ??When I first saw him I was so impressed with his freshness, with his approach, with his mobility, with his penetrating runs in the final third. When I started working with him at Everton I didn??t see any of that. He was more someone who was prepared to do whatever the team wanted him to do, and do a job for the team. It has been great to see him back to his old self.

??For me the biggest strength that makes him outstanding is his football intelligence. This is the moment of his career when everything has come together. He has the experience but he??s really fresh in terms of his fitness and then he has this amazing football brain which makes him different from anyone else. To play in the Premier League and be successful you need to be outstanding at something. He has outstanding football intelligence.??

There are Rangers supporters who have no time for Naismith, even if the vast majority would have him back in a heartbeat if that was possible. Naismith followed PFA Scotland advice and refused to let his contract transfer across from the oldco to newco when Charles Green??s Sevco consortium took over at Ibrox in 2012, and was one of the players who left the club as a free agent. Leaving without Rangers benefitting from a transfer fee has been strongly held against him ever since. Martinez cannot reconcile this hostility with his own experience of Naismith being an enthusiastic Rangers fan.

??I don??t really know the situation because there were so many things going on at that time at the club, but every time I speak with Steven he has the utmost respect for Rangers. He has been very supportive of what they do and how they get back to the level, where they should be. I don??t think Steven was ever disrespectful. He has an attachment to that football club and he will carry that for the rest of his life.??

For the last 18 month Martinez has developed a bond of his own. He talks with undisguised respect about Everton??s ??DNA??, about its nine league championships and its five FA Cups (although neither tournament has been won since 1995). ??Once I arrived I enjoyed getting into the history of the club and finding out about the big memories, the big moments, all the trophies, the big iconic figures. I felt so comfortable with the philosophy of the football club. From a football point of view I felt I was in the perfect fit.??

He inherited a team which finished sixth in David Moyes??s final season, helping the Scot into the Manchester United job. That didn??t leave much room for improvement but Martinez managed it. Everton finished fifth last season, his first at Goodison. ??I knew that it was a massive, massive job to replace what David did here. But the reality is that if you allow me to choose following someone like David Moyes, who has built a football club for 11 seasons and has everything in place, I would rather do that than go somewhere that has been a disaster for three or four years with a revolving door in terms of the squad and the club is in a state. I have been in both situations so I know which one I would prefer.??

When Moyes took over 2002 he instantly struck a chord by describing Everton as ??The People??s Club??. They liked that in the blue half of Liverpool. Martinez went one better, uniting all of Mersyeside in admiration for the dignity and class he showed at the Hillsborough memorial service at Anfield last April. He gave an address founded on firm, controlled emotion about how the 96 victims and their families had been abused by the authorities. ??They took on the wrong city if they thought they were going to get away with that.??

Eight months on, he talks sombrely about that moment. ??I put a lot of thought into that. I was very keen to find out what happened and I got into the whole aftermath of the tragedy. I have never experienced anything as powerful as that. You could feel the pain and the anger of what happened that day, it was very much alive and you??re talking after a long amount of years. The families know they can rely on our support and our respect. That is well above whatever football brings.

??Liverpool is like Glasgow. It is a footballing city. In that respect, it??s very, very interesting. I do feel that to become a strong team you need to have a strong rival.??

Part one of this interview, printed in yesterday's Sunday Herald, is available on heraldscotland.com