The Spanish coach, who arrived in January, has lost the support of his locker room and his future in Catalonia is already decided by his management.
Quique Setién will no longer be the coach of FC Barcelona next season. This is the intention, at present, of the azulgrana club. The Spanish technician got something complicated, that the locker room and management agree on one point: the best for both parties would be that the club and the coach separate at the end of the season.
Unless the team achieves a radical change in the rest of the season, the club believes that feelings are negative and that the break-up seems inevitable. Setién has signed a contract for two and a half seasons, but according to our information, the majority of the board of directors has already unofficially decided not to count on him for next season.
The cloakroom does not understand its instructions or its declarations
Some players do not understand his instructions, others do not understand his method and most of the group negatively assesses his statements to the press. Some players are also uncomfortable with his interventionist nature, in terms of fundamentals with the ball, where he usually corrects several players during training, as Rafa Benitez did during his brief stint at Real Madrid.
Another sensitive point is the figure of the second coach, Eder Sarabia, protagonist of certain clashes in the locker room, forcing Setién himself had to play the role of mediator. After the defeat of Balaídos, in the locker room, the tension was particularly palpable. The players will fight to achieve their goals, but they have lost confidence in Setien.
The management disappointed with the results … and the proposed game
In the board, the feeling is even worse than in the locker room. After the dismissal of Ernesto Valverde, who left the management team, we were confident that Quique Setién would finally find his mark. In reality, part of the board of directors feels disappointed in three ways: first, by the results obtained; second, through team play, because the first thing Setién did upon his arrival was to guarantee that his team would play well, which the board of directors thinks it did not do; and third, by his statements.
It is mathematically possible that Setién could end up winning the League and even the Champions League. Without a doubt, winning a title would boost his credit and his chances of staying at the club, but for now, the feeling in the offices is that they were wrong to hire Setién.
The management believed that Ernesto Valverde was exhausted, that the locker room needed change and that the club needed to be given new impetus. After the refusals of Ronald Koeman and Xavi Hernandez, Setien was chosen. Today, six months later, several club officials admit in private that the choice of Setien was a mistake. They know that there is no chemistry with the locker room, that his speech does not pass and that the team’s play does not please.
At the institutional level, the intention is to publicly support Setién until the end of the year. However, if the situation continues to worsen and becomes unsustainable, some club leaders are considering the possibility of supporting the youth coach, García Pimienta, or even trying to convince Xavi Hernández again. Which once again said it wanted to train the club one day.
– .
