ANYONE can coach Barcelona!

messiah wrote:tata it seems, don't know jack about him but we'll still win the league.

messiah wrote:don't really care who comes in because last preseason the Eurobond said anyone can coach barca not much as changed since, maybe harry are big Sam

Barca's future, Man City's signings, Reina's exit, more

Tito Vilanova's sudden relapse obviously lies beyond the realm of sports. You can only wish him the best and hope he surrounds himself with family and loved ones.

And maybe, hope that among them will be Pep Guardiola, who expressed his own pain and worry over Vilanova after last week's news. Relationships between two men - especially to who have been close for nearly three decades -- ought to be private affairs. It's a shame it all became public but, if there is a silver lining to all this, perhaps it's the opportunity for these two friends, Tito and Pep, to rebuild their friendship, ideally away from the media.

In the meantime though, Barcelona needed a new boss. The initial long-list of candidates -- as compiled by the Catalan media -- was whittled down to two, with Gerardo Martino appearing certain to get the nod over Luis Enrique.

Both men, in their own way, are somewhat counter-intuitive options. They speak volumes about the current thinking at Barca (or, at least, from Sandro Rosell). Experience -- particularly in Europe, particularly at the highest level -- is secondary to knowledge (of Barcelona and/or, evidently, of Lionel Messi). Why hire a pricey big-name boss who'll want a huge multi-year deal and make demands on the club's transfer policy when you can go for a cheaper option? Last year's record-equaling season under Vilanova proved that if you get the right guy, he doesn't necessarily need to be a household name.

Martino, the man known as "Tata," is either a case of lateral thinking or of kow-towing to the Messi camp. It's not that he lacks the credentials to manage a club like Barcelona, but more that it seems to be a huge leap. True, this is a man who won five league titles (and he’s only fifty), but four of them were in Paraguay and just one, the latest, was in his native Argentina.

Again, without wishing to disrespect anyone, you do wonder why it took so long for anyone in his native land to pick up on him. Especially since he was, after all, a very high-profile player with Newell's Old Boys.

Then there's the fact that apart from the last stint at Newell's, he hasn't actually managed a club side since 2006. Again, it's not as if he spent all those years sitting around -- he coached Paraguay and took them to the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup -- but it's a big leap from Paraguay or even Rosario to the daily media grind at the Camp Nou, particularly for a man who has never coached in Europe.

Tactically, he's seen by many as a disciple of Marcelo Bielsa who coached him when he was still a player at Newell's and therefore would offer a seamless tactical transition from Vilanova. (That's the narrative anyway. In reality, Martino is much more of a pragmatist, though it's rather funny how every Argentine coach who ever crossed paths with Bielsa and doesn't instruct his players to kick opponents black and blue is presented as some kind of chip off the old Bielsa block.)

Without wishing to go all x's and o's on you, the tactical aspects of the Martino appointment are highly debatable. There is no question he has a clear vision and that it tends to dovetail with Vilanova’s work. But it's one thing to dream up schemes and philosophies, another to get the players to buy into them. That will be one of the early challenges, as will be redrawing Vilanova's script to accommodate Neymar alongside Messi.

Speaking of Messi, the good news is that Martino will have a key ally in the dressing room. In fact, if local media are to be believed, Martino was Messi's handpicked choice. After all, like Messi, he hails from Rosario and both played for Newell's (Martino for 13 years as a senior pro, Messi as a child in the youth system).

It's almost too easy a narrative to buy into and, in some way, it doesn't matter if it’s true or not, because folks will assume it is: that Messi picked the next Barca boss. It would be quite a coincidence though if in the few days since Vilanova's prognosis, Barcelona did an instant worldwide search of available bosses and just happened to settle on the guy from Messi's backyard. Viewed from afar, it's one thing to take the wishes of your best player into consideration but quite another to possibly give so much say to a guy who may be the best in the world, but is still just 26 and, as a professional, has known no club other than Barca.

Whatever the case, Martino is a bold statement. And it's somehow refreshing that a club like Barcelona are, once again, getting creative with their appointments rather than chasing the latest out-of-work uber pedigreed big-name coach.

Murray wrote:Did Messi really pick him?

Super Mourinho wrote:Bit harsh on them. Thought Paraguay were quite impressive if dour. They were not far from beating Spain.

debaser wrote:

Super Mourinho wrote:Bit harsh on them. Thought Paraguay were quite impressive if dour. They were not far from beating Spain.

they probably played to their limitations & a QF is good, so that reflects well on the manager. but I won't forgive how utterly boring they were to watch

Roman Aglennovich wrote:WHO?