There is no arguing the fact that Gerardo Martino’s time in charge of Barcelona was one of the worst periods of time for the Spanish club as they could not clinch a single major trophy in the entire season and they had to watch how Real Madrid and Athletic Madrid claimed all their targets.
RealMadridwent on to win the Champions League and Copa del Rey while Athletic Madrid managed to squeeze past everyone in the Spanish League and lift the league title.
That underwhelming season finished with Gerardo Martino being sacked and replaced by Luis Enrique. Gerardo Martino is now the head coach ofArgentinabut he has recently revealed a few details concerning what it was like to manage a club likeBarcelonaand specially coaching a superstar player like Lionel Messi.
Many coaches would be more than happy to be in charge of high profile players such as Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo but Gerardo Martino said that the job has its disadvantages too as he is always under being critiqued despite what happens in the pitch.
The former coach ofBarcelona, Gerardo Martino told the media: “When you get the chance to coach a footballer like Leo it’s very difficult to be exempt from comments and rumors. In our time together atBarcelona, it was said he was saving himself for the World Cup. But in La Liga he scored about 30 goals. There were always questions about Leo, if he scored three goals then why had he scored three goals? If he scored one, then why had he only scored one? And if didn’t score at all, it was the same.”
Gerardo Martino just couldn’t fully understand how to utilize Lionel Messi in a team and this is one of the main reasons on why he was so heavily critiqued during his tenure atCampNoubut now that he was selected as the head coach ofArgentina, Martino and Messi will be once more working alongside each other.