Time for Barcelona's Marc Bartra to Look Elsewhere After Copa Del Rey Snub

Marc Bartra's career at Barcelona has to be over. That is the only conclusion one can draw from his total omission against Athletic Bilbao in Wednesday night's Copa del Rey quarter-final second leg.

If the 24-year-old, even now, is considered only good enough to be fifth-choice centre-back behind even the likes of Thomas Vermaelen and an error-prone Jeremy Mathieu, then Luis Enrique has as good as shut the door on Bartra.

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Clearly he still needs regular experience at the top level, but he'll only get that by playing games. And the tie against Los Leones represented another perfect opportunity for him to show the manager that he's worthy of playing a fair bit more than recently.

In the first half at least, the Blaugrana were all over the place defensively, and the ease with which Inaki Williams kept going past Mathieu was, frankly, embarrassing at this level.

"

Vermaelen and Mathieu shouldn't be playing in big games like this,If you really want to play them then do it against the smaller oppositions

— Barca World (@FCBarcelonaHome) January 27, 2016"

The run of games that Barca are currently undertaking—the third meeting with Athletic was their eighth of a January that still hasn't quite finished—is evidently beginning to take its toll.

Overly slapdash in their last two fixtures particularly, the Catalans have nevertheless won both, but the wins can't hide the cracks.

Cracks that could be eased with some studious rotations especially at the back.

Enrique has earned the respect of the demanding home support since taking the post and unlike this time last season, a changing of the guard once or twice will surely be seen as a positive move.

What's difficult to understand is the manager's particular stance toward Bartra.

Per Sport (h/t James Cambridge of the Daily Express), the player noted last summer that he wanted to move on because of lack of games, but he was talked around by Lucho, one might assume on the basis that he would be given more match time.

Bartra said:

"

The end of the season was hard, because at first I had more regular football and at the end I didn't play as much.

But I was thinking calmly about leaving Barça who had always treated me so well.

The offers that arrived made me doubt myself, but with a coach like Luis Enrique you know that everything can change in a year and I am going to give everything.

"

Here we are six months into the season and Bartra has barely featured, yet Enrique is adamant that he will not allow the player to be sold in this window.

JM Diaz of Sport noted:

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FC Barcelona will not let Marc Bartra leave the club in the winter transfer window, under strict instruction from coach Luis Enrique Martinez.

Sevilla want the defender on loan, but the coach wants to keep (Bartra) at the club to give himself more options in defence and make sure there is sufficient back-up.

"

Diaz goes on to say that Bartra wants more minutes, having only started six games this season, playing a part in just 11 in total.

It's entirely fair that a player approaching his peak years and who has been a loyal servant to the club since his La Masia academy days, should have his wishes granted. If not at Barcelona, then elsewhere.

Former Barca stalwart and captain Carles Puyol has been retained by Bartra as his new agent, and he was pictured at Tottenham Hotspur's training ground recently.

While there, he told Spurs TV, via Nicholas Godden of the Daily Mail:

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I think he (Mauricio Pochettino) is a very good coach, one of the best. He has proved it in every team he has been. I like his way of understanding football.

He likes good football, but with players who show intensity. He really enjoys his profession and that is something I love. He is a great coach.

"

Tottenham were known to be interested in taking Bartra last year, per Sport. Is it a coincidence that Puyol should turn up there during the transfer window?

There's still time for a deal to be concluded—loan or otherwise—and frankly, if Enrique believes that Bartra isn't good enough to depose those already in situ, the player needs to force through a move now.