Tata Martino signed a contract until 2015 with Barcelona in the summer. The Argentine’s arrival coincided with a difficult moment in the club: not only had Tito Vilanova’s health concerns caused upset, but also, the team was at a crossroads and desperately needing to evolve.
Now, over six months into his contract, drama is still very much present in the form of presidential changes and controversy over the Neymar-deal, and rumors in the press have started to suggest that Tata, being caught in the middle, is considering to leave his post at the end of the season.
El Confidencial suggests that while Barcelona is preparing a renewal for their Argentine coach – one that would extend the current contract by a year – the manager himself is having doubts about staying at the club, as he feels the team needs changes in its ways of operating, and also, feels as though he arrived to the club at the wrong time. In the coach’s own words, there’s “no rush” with a renewal, and that in football “nothing is guaranteed”.
A 3-1 loss to Real Sociedad is hardly going to make the speculation disappear, and as Barcelona’s board still struggles to clear its name in the aftermath of the controversial Neymar-deal, the conditions are far from ideal for Martino. Rumors suggest that Martino has already let the people close to him know that he won’t be in Barcelona next season, but as things stand, Martino leaving his post would in fact be the worst case scenario for the Barcelona going through a rough transition.
Some could suggest that Tata hasn’t been successful guiding his team through that transition. Three losses in La Liga and the third spot behind two Madrid teams is the closest to a nightmare Barcelona has been in a while. But if things were that simple, football wouldn’t be football at all.
Martino’s project is precisely that; a project. Not a one-year visit, not an experiment, nothing of the like. It’s a project that takes more time than a season without a proper summer preparation. Martino certainly knows this too. What he, as well as many others, see, is that the changes the current Barcelona desperately craves are far greater than one season can bring. Perhaps that’s why he reportedly feels as though he arrived at the wrong time. Perhaps the times of institutional imbalance and instability are not the right kind of times for a big transition. Not least so because the board needs success more desperately than anyone, in order to cover up for what has been going on behind the scenes. Craving for success and needing changes, as we all know, don’t often mix well as change is bound to take time.
Is Tata bound to feel at least a tiny bit uncomfortable in such circumstances? Probably. Is he bound to feel overwhelmed trying to do in the space of months what should have been done years ago, such as solve the team’s defensive dilemmas and take its attack to a more direct direction? That too, certainly.
Perhaps that pressure drives him to the occasional mistake with the lineup, as happened against Real Sociedad. Perhaps his own experience of Newell’s Old Boys’ dip in form due to exhaustion has made him more eager to rotate in Barcelona, to the point that some think is too much. Things tend to happen for a reason, people tend to have reasons for their actions. Sometimes those reasons are visible, sometimes not.
Either way, for Barcelona Martino’s departure would mean the third major change in personnel inside three years. The third time in three years they had to start all over again. And considering that Tata’s project – well, at least in my view – is something worth believing in, that wouldn’t be much more than a terrible shame.
After all, whether Martino’s project proves successful can’t possibly be measured during or even after the ongoing season. The amount of trophies Barcelona will or won’t parade at the streets of Barcelona in May and June will not be the accurate indicator of how successful the project has been or has the potential to be. The summer transfer window – if there will be one for Martino as a Barcelona coach – will show the direction Martino wants to go, and only after that could some kind of conclusions be made.
According to El Confidencial, Martino wants to have more autonomy in the squad, most likely with regards to transfers as well. Rumors of the Argentine wanting a striker have persisted since the early days, and the addition of a midfielder could also be in the cards, be it in the form of the loan returnee Rafinha or someone else. Changes as such could prove pivotal in the making of the kind of Barcelona Tata really wants.
While Mundo Deportivo suggests that Barcelona is about to offer Martino a renewal, the time for such, however, might not be the best possible. If Barcelona is in a transition, so is Martino, who is – as quick as we are to forget – still enjoying his very first season in European football and very much adapting as well. While he has managed to make the side competitive again, as victories over Real Madrid and Manchester City prove, the ultimately best template is yet to be found. Not yet can you see a crystal clear identity in Martino’s Barcelona. That won’t happen over night, anyway.
Will Martino in the end get enough time to bring a new identity to Barcelona? Will he himself have enough strength in him to manage a club that, say, wore Pep Guardiola out? As much as it shouldn’t, a lot, in the end, depends on how successful the ongoing season ends up being. A major title would bring Martino peace to build the squad for the next season, a trophyless season would only boost the rumors currently surrounding the Barcelona boss. After all, the job of a manager in a big club is – more than anything – mentally challenging, which is why now more than ever Barcelona needs stability in the boardrooms just as much as on the pitch, to offer Martino the tools he needs to confidently guide the team to where he wants it to go. If nothing else, the coach’s rumored uncertainty over his future is a welcome wake-up call to the board that at least claims to have his back.
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