“We all support Martino,” Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta said ahead of Sunday’s clasico. “The coach should be the lighthouse of the team and we’re united. We hope he stays next season.”
A year ago, Barcelona’s players were offering support for then coach Tito Vilanova when he was so ill with cancer that he had to step down. He was replaced by Gerardo Martino, yet only nine months into a two-year contract, the Argentine has told friends that he is likely to leave at the end of the season.
Barca quickly denied this after a credible Catalan television show made the allegation on Monday evening, but as long ago as December when Barca were clear at the top of the table, players were talking about their new boss leaving.
Martino, 51, has said nothing publicly for he is under contract and has a job to do, but sources close to him say he feels unappreciated and simply isn’t enjoying being the coach.
In his expansive press conferences he often has the look of a man bewildered by the political swirl surrounding the club, negotiating the ever-shifting plates of power where potential presidents jockey for position.
There is always an off-the-field fire to put out, a crisis, a talking point to detract when you are Barcelona coach.
Then there are genuine distractions – the Neymar transfer scandal that led to the resignation of the man who brought him to Camp Nou, club president Sandro Rosell.
The Catalan media have been harsh on the former Newell’s Old Boys manager, in part because they expect perfection and also because he is neither Pep Guardiola, nor Catalan.
They were underwhelmed at his appointment because they knew little about Martino, but disquiet remained under the surface.
This was the coach anointed by Lionel Messi, after all, and Barca fans want the best player in the world to be happy at work.
Messi has been consistently indulged, though he seldom looks content. If there is a criticism of one of football’s greatest players, it is that he dominates the club and lesser players around him are frightened to be themselves.
Several times this season, Alexis Sanchez and Pedro have cut in from the wing to be in a shooting position only to look up and see where Messi was, hoping to provide an assist, a gift to Barcelona’s king.
Neymar, the club’s record signing who scored in the latest Clasico, one of only seven goals he has in the league, has not been the star many fans hoped.
He has been good, but that is not enough and while he has not lost his smile in the dressing room, his transfer saga has been an unwanted sideline.
In a rare interview with a German motor company, former manager Guardiola said this week: “With a lot of stars in the line-up, like we have now at Bayern Munich or at my previous team, Barcelona, you can encounter situations in which having so many can be destructive.
“Everyone wants to play, but you can only put out 11 players on the pitch at any one time. The players I leave on the bench are likely to be the ones who won’t be happy with my decision, and there’s the pressure from the press and the fans of having to pick certain players.
“Every time I left Messi on the bench, for example, there was a fuss.”
It can all be extremely tiring for a manager, with the bar of expectation set so high that success is almost impossible to achieve.
Guardiola, who had the genuine star quality so beloved by fans, had enough after four years. Martino is showing signs that he has already reached that stage ahead of Sunday’s Clasico at the Bernabeu.
Barca trail leaders Real Madrid by four points. Defeat and a seven-point gap would surely be too hard to close with just nine games left. Martino will be judged a success only if he brings home the league title or the Champions League, where they have been drawn against Atletico Madrid in the last eight.
Not for the first time, games in Madrid will likely define Barcelona’s season but Martino’s fate already seems decided.
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.
Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.
The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.
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TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The lowdown
Badla
Rating: 2.5/5
Produced by: Red Chillies, Azure Entertainment
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke
Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier
UAE results
Beat China by 16 runs
Lost to Thailand by 10 wickets
Beat Nepal by five runs
Beat Hong Kong by eight wickets
Beat Malaysia by 34 runs
Standings (P, W, l, NR, points)
1. Thailand 5 4 0 1 9
2. UAE 5 4 1 0 8
3. Nepal 5 2 1 2 6
4. Hong Kong 5 2 2 1 5
5. Malaysia 5 1 4 0 2
6. China 5 0 5 0 0
Final
Thailand v UAE, Monday, 7am
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
EXPATS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Lulu%20Wang%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nicole%20Kidman%2C%20Sarayu%20Blue%2C%20Ji-young%20Yoo%2C%20Brian%20Tee%2C%20Jack%20Huston%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
