Tata Gerardo Martino With the unsettling and tragic departure of Tito Vilanova, social networks and sports blogs have lit up with speculation about who the next Barça manager will be. Pundits weighs in on who might be the best man to fill the boots at our storied club. In this post, Stevenson offers a little background on former Newell’s Old Boys manager Gerardo [Tata] Martino. Anims, Tito. If you’ve been following this series then you know that I want Jupp Heynckes to be our next manager. But as the day of speculation and rumor around Barcelona’s next coach has unfolded, two names have risen to the top of the list: Luis Enrique and Gerardo Martino. I knew nothing about Martino until yesterday, but as he seems like a strong candidate for the job, it seems fitting that we end this series with a profile of the Argentine. Gerardo [Tata] Martino, 50, is a disciple of Marcelo Bielsa who just lead his squad, Newell’s Old Boys, to the Argentine Torneo Final title. Before Newell’s, he coached several teams in Paraguay, and he lead the Paraguayan national team to the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 Copa America. I know this sounds so far like a poor Wikipedia cut and paste job but two names should have caught your attention that help explain Barcelona’s interest in the man: Bielsa and Newell’s. Martino actually played under Bielsa as a player at Newell’s in the mid-1990s, and during this time the two men developed a special relationship. As Mike Njoroge noted in a recent profile, “in those early Bielsa coaching years, it was Martino who was Bielsa’s go to man on the pitch. He was the coach’s personification on the pitch, much in the same way Xavi Hernandez was to Guardiola or Roy Keane was to Sir Alex Ferguson.” As a coach, Martino assembled teams who could play with some of the essential elements of the Barca style: quick passing, pressing, a blurring of the lines between offense and defense, and a commitment to a footballing philosophy that was more important than an individual result. The other obvious element to highlight is the link between Martino, Newell’s and Lionel Messi. Messi himself hails from Rosario and Newell’s was the first team to give him a chance to display his footballing talent to a wider audience. Messi, and his family, have an obvious emotional connection to the city and the team; I’m sure the idea of a former Newell’s icon taking over at Barcelona is attractive to him. Further, you could draw other connections between our South-American-focused attack and a manager steeped in that brand of football. If the rumors in the Catalan media are to be believed, then the Barca board is weighing two very different potential successors to Tito Vilanova. In fact, the two apparently final candidates are in some ways polar opposites. Luis Enrique is the obvious choice, the safe choice. He has a passion for the club, its football heritage and style; he knows all the actors behind the scenes and understands the bigger picture in Spanish football. He knows many of the current first- teamers and would slot into a role as manager with a minimum of fuss. Martino, on the other hand is a more daring option; a choice that almost presents as many questions as it does answers. He has never coached outside of South America and would undoubtedly require some time to adapt to his new surroundings. His sheer passion for football, his tactical vision of the game, and his potential relationship with Messi all count as strong factors in his favor. -AW
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 10:14:48 +0000
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