In a major turnaround of events, the European and Spanish giants, Barcelona, have sacked their manager Ernesto Valverde and has appointed Quique Setien as their new manager. The former Real Betis manager is known for his attacking football and with the fans and people surrounding Camp Nou growing frustrated, Barcelona board decided to sack the manager despite Catalans topping the Champions League group and La-Liga.
The 61-year-old, Quique Setien was a serial winner back then leading Real Betis to victories over the Spanish giants like Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona in a single season. However, he was fired from his job after the team couldn’t keep up the form. However, Setien’s style of football and his availability has made Barcelona sign him up as manager.
Agreement between FC Barcelona and Ernesto Valverde to end his contract as manager of the first team. Thank you for everything, Ernesto. Best of luck in the future. pic.twitter.com/zrIgB1sW2e
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 13, 2020
According to statistics, it is the first time in 17 years when Barcelona have sacked their manager in the middle of the season. Back then in 2003, Barcelona sacked Louis van Gaal in the mid-season as Blaugrana Blues were 0 points behind the league leaders.
Quique Setién will be the new manager of FC Barcelona. Welcome!
➕ INFO https://t.co/EOP9MSFFJ1 pic.twitter.com/IkhzFGyxHf
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 13, 2020
Barcelona first approached their former player, Xavi Hernandez to become the manager of the club. Barcelona’s director of football, Eric Abidal and chief executive, Oscar Grau flew to Qatar to negotiate and persuade their former legendary midfielder. However, to their vain, Xavi didn’t budge to their requests but said that he would like to manage Barcelona one day. Currently, Xavi is managing Qatari champions, Al-Sadd and the team is currently struggling in their league. Hence, he doesn’t want to leave the club in tatters and join the Catalans.
However, it was learned that the Barcelona board was intended to see out the season with Ernesto Valverde as his contract runs down in the summer. However, after a humiliating defeat from the hands of Atleti made the board act sooner than never.
It was learned that Barcelona was interested in bringing Roberto Martinez or Ronald Koeman to Camp Nou as their manager. However, both are stuck in their national duties and are not ready to take up the role at the moment. According to the reports, Barcelona has agreed to a two and a half year deal with Setien.
Is Quequi Setien a good choice for Barcelona? Can he handle the club and lead them to Champions League glory? Voice of your comments below.
