Archive for  May 2014

Home / May 2014
3 Posts

Martino Expected To Leave Barcelona

posted on May 27, 2014 by

Barcelona’s Gerardo Martino has not enjoyed the best of debut seasons after the Catalan crashed out of the Champions League and Copa del Rey. There already are rumors of him leaving Barcelona when the season finishes and Luis Enrique taking over the club during the summer.

Barcelona still has a chance of winning the Spanish league title but this will only happen if they are able of securing a victory against Athletic Madrid on the last match of the season.

Gerardo Martino is well aware that the club has already made contacts and held meetings with Luis Enrique but Martino remains proud of the work he has accomplished with Barcelona and everything else is secondary.

“The club has done nothing wrong. At least not in my eyes, I won’t necessarily be happy with my work even if we do win the league title. There’s no result that will change my future. I’m very proud to coach Barcelona. It’s a huge job.”
“It has been a difficult season, with many problems off the pitch. We have tried to get over them with football and we were alive in the title race. It was a poor season wasn’t what we expected. There was the chance of not reaching the goals, but not due to our own mistakes’’. Martino said.
If indeed Martino does get sacked at the end of the season, Malaga is a likely destination for the Argentine manager as Malaga is interested in turning him into their head coach and some time ago, Martino was on the verge of joining the club but ultimately he decided on settling with Barcelona.

MARTINO STAYS

posted on May 7, 2014 by in Barca News

Gerardo Martino has dismissed speculation that he is set to leave Barcelona at the end of the season. The Argentine was appointed as a replacement for Tito Vilanova only in the summer.

It was heavily speculated that Lionel Messi played a major role in disappointment, but this has always been denied by the club. Either way, many feel that his presence in the dugout has made the club moved backward. The club has been trying to get a new philosophy of football that is vastly different from the days of Guardiola and Tito Vilanova.

The players have been struggling to adapt to this philosophy and this has translated to poor results on the pitch. The latest came in the form of a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final. Even though Barcelona put up a good fight in response to going down to a goal from Madrid in the first half, they were ultimately not deserving winners. There has been speculation that Martino has a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave the club at the end of the season if all parties are not happy with his work.

The Argentine has refused to entertain claims that he will step down from his post at the end of the season, in an exclusive interview with the brasil mexico odds site.

“Obviously this is not a good moment. It has been a hard week on all fronts. As I have said for one, two, three months now, I don’t feel that my future has changed because of all that we lost, and nor do I think it would be different if we had won,” said the Barcelona manager, who could still lead the club to league title success. However, they are three points behind leaders Atletico Madrid with only five matches left in the season.

MARTINO IS HAPPY

posted on May 1, 2014 by

The manager of Barcelona, Gerardo Martino, is very happy that his side has performed well in the high pressure games of late.

Barcelona has had some indifferent results in the Spanish top flight in the last couple of months because of which they lost their top position in the points table, but, now, it seems that they are back in rhythm and are well and truly in the race for the title. They are still not leading the table though, but, they are not too far away from it.

In the last few days, Barcelona has won two high pressure games. First, the El Clasico against the arch rivals Real Madrid and then the Barcelona derby against the local rivals Espanyol and in both those victories, it’s their superstar Lionel Messi who played the main role.

Talking to the reporters after the match against Espanyol, Martino said, “I knew it was going to be a tight game and thus, it was important for us to be on our toes. I am really proud of the way the boys showed character. We are peaking at the right time.”

When asked about Victor Valdes who has been ruled out of the season because of injury, Martino said, “This win was for Victor. He has been a great player for Barcelona over a long period of time. It was obviously unfortunate the way he went out, but, that’s life.”]

Victor Valdes would make an away move next summer which means that he would never feature for Barcelona again.
The Spaniard has been at Camp Nou since 2002 and has represented Blaugrana in close to 400 league games.
He had established a ligament injury in the match against Celta Vigo which Barcelona had won by 3-0.