“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.
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