By Akinwale Kasali
After an abysmal performance against Celta Vigo over the weekend, playing a 2-2 draw with the Catalan Giants, Barcelona Football Club two points behind arch-rival, Real Madrid Football Club, Barcelona is set to sack Coach Quique Setien.
Setien needs a miracle to retain his job as the Manager of the Catalunya Club side, needing a positive to drastically improve the fortunes of his side, hoping Capital Club side, Real Madrid, drops points to enable him win the Liga title and the Champions League this season.
Setien, who only took the Camp Nou job in January as replacement for Ernesto Valverde, has lost the confidence of the Barca dressing room, while the club’s board are also unhappy with recent performances.
Unless Barca displays for the remainder of the 2019-20 campaign have a significant upswing, it is understood that it is inevitable Setien will leave his post in the summer.
The former Real Betis manager was given a two-and-a-half-year contract in January. However, as things stand he will not be able to see out more than a few months of this deal.
Player power at Barcelona is strong – led by stars such as Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique – and the dressing room has turned against Setien due to confusion at his tactics and unhappiness at his comments in the press.
They are also unhappy with Setien being too hands-on in training – similar to how Real Madrid’s stars turned against Rafael Benitez before he was sacked and replaced by Zinedine Zidane – while the assistant manager, Eder Sarabia, is also a very unpopular figure.
Setien has also lost the confidence of the board, which hoped the coach would help smoothen things over after Valverde’s departure – however poor results and negative football has ensured this has not been the case.
What could save his job, however, is the fact that Barcelona could still end the season as La Liga and Champions League winners – they are only two points off league leaders Real Madrid, and have a round of 16 second-leg clash with Napoli to come in August, having drawn 1-1 in the first game before the cup was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Setien was not the first choice after Valverde’s sacking, with Ronald Koeman and Xavi Hernandez both turning down the job before the 61-year-old was appointed.
Former Barca star Xavi, now coach of Qatari club Al Sadd, has admitted he is preparing to manage his old club in the future and the Camp Nou board may try and persuade him to return this summer, while current B team boss Xavi Garcia Pimienta is also considered an option.
For now, however, Setien continues – but unless he manages to guide the club to what looks like increasingly unlikely success, he is on borrowed time.
Barcelona faces another arch rival, Atletico Madrid Football Club tonight at the Camp Nou, which could finally decide the fate and future of Setien.
In another Development, Valencia Football Club of Spain have sacked its gaffer, Albert Celades after only nine months in charge, while the club’s sporting director Cesar Sanchez has resigned.
Voro Gonzalez has replaced Celades as manager until the end of the season in what is his sixth spell as Valencia’s temporary boss.
He first took over in 2008 after Ronald Koeman’s sacking and helped the La Liga side avoid relegation.
It would be recalled that, Celades was named Valencia boss in September after Marcelino’s sacking.
He is the sixth manager to be dimissed since Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim bought the club in 2014, while Sanchez – appointed in January – is the sixth sporting director to leave in the same period.
According to reports, Sanchez resigned shortly after Celades’ sacking on Monday, having earlier told the squad their manager would still be in charge for Wednesday’s game against Athletic Bilbao.
Meanwhile, Valencia are eighth in La Liga, and have lost three of their past four games.
