La Liga Champs Barcelona Sack Valverde And Appoint Quique Setien As Successor
14th January 2020
Setien will be presented in a press conference at Camp Nou at 2.30pm local time (1330 GMT) on Tuesday
- Spanish champions FC Barcelona have sacked their coach Ernesto Valverde and appointed Quique Setien as his replacement, the club announced on Monday
- The decision to remove Valverde was confirmed following a board meeting that lasted more than four hours at Camp Nou on Monday afternoon
- His first game in charge will be at home to Granada on Sunday. Barcelona play Napoli in the last 16 of the Champions League next month and Real Madrid in the league at the start of March
MADRID, Spain- Spanish
champions FC Barcelona have sacked their coach Ernesto Valverde and appointed
Quique Setien as his replacement, the club announced on Monday.
The decision to remove Valverde was confirmed following a
board meeting that lasted more than four hours at Camp Nou on Monday afternoon.
Barca are top of La Liga but have won only one of their last
five matches. Valverde is the first coach the club has sacked mid-season since
Louis van Gaal in 2003.
"FC Barcelona and Ernesto Valverde have reached an
agreement to terminate the contract that united both parties," read a club
statement released on Monday night.
Setien will be presented in a press conference at Camp Nou
at 2.30pm local time (1330 GMT) on Tuesday.
"Barcelona and Quique Setien have reached an
agreement for the latter to become first team coach until 30 June 2022,"
the club said.
"Setien is one of the most experienced coaches in
Spanish football," it added. "Throughout his career he has been a
proponent of possession based, attacking football that has been attractive to
the fans."
His first game in charge will be at home to Granada on
Sunday. Barcelona play Napoli in the last 16 of the Champions League next month
and Real Madrid in the league at the start of March.
Setien has made no secret of his admiration for the
stylistic traditions of Barcelona, with the 61-year-old also renowned for
favouring an exciting, offensive mode of football.
A former player of Atletico Madrid and Racing Santander, he
was circled as a potential Barca coach during a particularly successful period
in charge of Real Betis.
Setien led Betis to a sixth-place finish in 2018 and
qualification for the Europa League but, despite overseeing a thrilling 4-3
victory at Camp Nou early the following season, results tailed off.
Betis finished 10th and the club and coach parted ways in
the summer. Previously, he also helped Las Palmas avoid relegation from La Liga
in 2016.
A footballing purist, Setien and Barcelona would seem a good
fit, particularly if the players feel released from some of Valverde's more
pragmatic tendencies.
But critics of Setien would argue style often takes
precedence over substance and it remains to be seen how he handles the pressure
of matching aesthetics with results at one of the world's most demanding
clubs.
He will also have to do without Luis Suarez, who will be
missing for the next four months after having surgery on his right knee.