Barcelona officially sacked Ernesto Valverde as their coach this season and appointed Quique Setien as the new coach.
Barcelona officially ended cooperation with Valverde. The announcement was revealed by Barcelona through their social media accounts.
“An agreement took place between FC Barcelona and Ernesto Valverde to terminate the contract as manager in the first team. Thank you for everything, Ernesto. Wish you all the best in the future,” Barcelona wrote.
Valverde’s position in the Barcelona coach’s seat has not been safe since the start of the season due to the influence of Barcelona’s failure in the Champions League last season.
Valverde’s future is questioned again after Barcelona lost in the semifinals of the Spanish Super Cup until the Blaugrana finally announced this decision on Monday (1/13).
The coach seat left by Valverde will be filled by Quique Setien, who last season handled Real Betis. Setien was contracted in Barcelona with a duration of 2.5 years.
The change of coach is not entirely a relief because Setien’s background is not wandering with titles and his name is still unfamiliar to many people.
Setien is 61 years old, classified as a veteran trainer and has quite high flight hours. Setien has been a coach for two decades, starting with handling Racing Santander in 2001.
As a coach, Setien’s career was fairly mediocre. He only handles unpopular clubs like Logrones, Lugo, Las Palmas to Real Betis. From the club’s list, only Real Betis are considered to have enough famous in Spanish football.
By acting in small teams, Setien has never had the opportunity to embrace the championship trophy in his career as a coach.
Although he doesn’t have a flashy background, there are compelling reasons that Setien can be chosen by Barcelona. One of them is Setien’s playing pattern which is similar to Barcelona’s playing pattern.
Since a long time ago, Setien was an admirer of Johan Cruyff. Setien claimed Cruyff successfully showed soccer to be played better through the game patterns he developed.
In the last season, Setien managed to bring Betis beat Barcelona at Camp Nou with a score of 4-3. Not only Barcelona, Setien was also able to bring Betis to beat Real Madrid with a score of 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Setien is a type of coach favored by supporters. When his contract with Betis did not continue, many supporters thanked him and hugged him along the way.
Setien never covered his desire to coach Barcelona. He had been rumored to be the new coach of Barcelona last year but the Blaugrana finally decided that Valverde remained.
Now Setien has better player material to support the play patterns that he applies. Setien can now follow in the footsteps of Cruyff ushering Barcelona, no longer just simply admiring these achievements.
