Los Culés - A Barcelona Story

Barcelona announced Tuesday that the Argentine coach would take over for Vilanova, who stepped down last week to proceed with a cancer treatment that was "incompatible" with his coaching duties.

The 50-year-old Martino has never coached in Europe before, and after five trophy-laden seasons with coaches who had come up through the club's youth programs, his signing represents a break from the line of selecting in-house managers.

Martino said that he would tweak the team he has inherited, looking to improve on something that was already working well.

"I will try to combine both things, keeping with the style of the club and the style the players are comfortable playing in, but logically while trying to add my own part to make a more complete team," Martino said. "There are excellent players here and if we can go back to the ideas of the great moments of Barcelona we will do well."

Good luck!

Good luck

Messi - “I like Tata Martino. He is a great coach and he showed that in the Clausura with what he did for the team, the way it ended and how he did it. He gets his teams playing well and we all respect him.”

The World Player of the Year and Martino share a few notable connections, the biggest being that the pair are both from the city of Rosario. In addition, Messi began his career in the youth ranks at Newell’s Old Boys, the Argentinian side where Martino starred as a player and managed to the Argentinian Clausura title this past season.

Martino has also come out and spoken of the dilemma many are suggesting between Messi and Neymar. However the new manager has ruled out any problems.

"I don't understand why two players of that quality can't play together, but if they can't, it will be my fault, not theirs," he said.

Nice Start, Good Luck

A good start I am really looking forward to seeing how this develops. Will you continue with 'TIKA TAKA' ?

Brazilian Adriano and dutch attacking midfielder Affellay have left Barcelona.

Adriano left to PSG for a staggering £20m. The Barcelona fans are very happy with this as Adriano was seen as surplus to requirements and the money received is a big help to securing a better player. The player can play everywhere down the left flank but clearly lacked the quality in Martino's eyes.

Afellay made a £12m move to Porto. The player has never really sunk into the Barca first team and Martino though he would benefit elsewhere. This was another fairly large fee transfer. It is reported Barca now have at least £60m to spend and there are rumours of Phil Jones, Leighton Baines and Gareth Bale making their way to the Nou Camp.

Nice, 32 M will be handy in the future. Best of luck securing your targets.

Fantastic deals for those players you sold but do you really need Baines? Jones and Bale I would go for but not Baines! #JusticeforAlba

Nice start. Will be interesting to see who you buy

Bale and jones? Are u serious. So many better players

Gerardo Martino has added two young players to his first team squad in the name of David Alaba and Phil Jones. Martino believes they can both become future stars for Los Cules but he also believes they can make an instant impact.

"Jones is a very versatile player. He can play CB, RB, DMC and even MC. This will come in very useful if we are ever short through injury. He will mainly play centre back or right back this season though."

"Alaba is a fantastic left back. Him and Jordi Alba will rotate and battle against eachother for a first team spot in the big games."

Phil Jones joint Barca on a fee of £19m. Although expensive for a 20 year old, Martino and Jones himself feel that he can perform at the highest level. Jones is on a 5 year contract at £57k a week.
The 20 year old Austrian joint for a slightly lower fee of £17.5m. The fans believe this is a bargain for such a talented player. Alaba is on a 5 year contract earning £57k a week also.

Today young winger Tello signed for Borussia Dortmund for £8.75m. The German club activated the players release clause but it is not what Barcelona wanted.

Martino - "I did not plan to sell Tello. When Dortmund made the bid we instantly offered Tello a new contract hoping he would stay. Unfortunately he saw his career away from Nou Camp which is a shame."

It is rumoured Barca offered to triple Tello's wage but the lure of first team football at Dortmund was too much to turn down for the winger. Tello only made 16 appearences in 2 years for Los Cules.

Get Bale, I dare ya.

Good so far, good luck