Barcelona have sacked coach Quique Setien following the club’s humiliating 8-2 Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich, the club announced on Monday, with sources confirming to ESPN that Ronald Koeman is in advanced talks to take over.
The decision to fire Setien was announced after a board meeting, but sources told ESPN that it had already been made prior to the Bayern game.
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“The board of directors has decided that Quique Setién will no longer be the first team coach. This is the first in a series of decisions that outline a major restructuring of the first team. Those changes will be made in consensus with the current one. technical secretary and will be announced in the coming days, “Barca said in a statement.
ESPN reported on Friday that Barca have already started sounding like possible replacements. For a long time it was a hot feeling under the Barca hierarchy that Setien, hired just seven months ago, had failed to win over the locker room due to his relatively limited performance as both a player and a coach. That led to shortages on the field in the end, with Barca ending their first trophy-less season since 2007-08.
Barca want their next deal to be a name that gets the direct respect between the players. Mauricio Pochettino and Xavi Hernandez were among the initiative candidates, but negotiations with Koeman are going well and the Dutch coach could be announced in the coming days.
Koeman, who was part of Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team ‘as a player at Barca and later as an assistant to Louis van Gaal at Camp Nou, would have to leave his role with the Dutch national team for a role that he always described it as his dream job.
Setien’s dismissal is probably the only consequence of the battle against Bayern, which was the club’s record defeat in a European game.
Speaking after the match, defender Gerard Pique, offered to leave himself, said that changes were needed at all levels of the club. President Josep Maria Bartomeu assured that major decisions will be taken. Bartomeu is under pressure to resign, but has instead decided to postpone presidential elections, scheduled for next summer, until March.
Meanwhile, reports suggest Lionel Messi has told the club he wants to leave. Sources at the club have told ESPN that they have not received any communication about that effect from the player.
However, Setien becomes the first victim of the Bayern loss. The fate of the former Real Betis boss was already sealed after he missed La Liga to Real Madrid, while his relationship with the players in the last weeks of the season ended when the title slipped away.
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Julien Laurens explains why he thinks Ronald Koeman after Barcelona is bad news for both parties.
Sources told ESPN after the 2-2 draw against Celta Vigo on June 27 that some members of the squad did not click with manager or his assistant Eder Sarabia from day one. The following month, Messi’s remarks following the defeat to Osasuna, in which he said Barca had been “weak” and “inconsistent” since January, were taken as criticism of Setien.
The two held clear talks and the players and coaches pulled together ahead of a Champions League round-of-16 win over Napoli, but the next elimination against Bayern raised further questions about Setien’s future and Bartomeu chose to drop a coach for the second time this year.
Setien replaced Ernesto Valverde on 13 January, taking over a side that had just been knocked out of the Spanish Supercopa, but which came out on top in La Liga and was still in the Copa del Rey and Champions League.
Defeat against Athletic Bilbao, however, ended Barca’s hopes of appearing in a seventh consecutive domestic cup final and was followed by a failure to beat Madrid in the league.
Barca gained a two-point lead when the league resumed in June following a shutdown in Spain caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but dropped points against Celta, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and Osasuna, allowing Madrid to overtake them to to claim top spot.
Setien was brought in with the aim of restoring the essence of Barca’s football philosophy, but sources told ESPN that several members of the club’s hierarchy feel he did not. The problems may run deeper than one man who had the job for such a short time, but he is ultimately made the face of a fruitless season.
Setien could claim he did not get the best hand. Barca had to sign Leganes’ Martin Braithwaite in January to create squad numbers, and for several post-lockdown games only 14 first-team players were available.
As appointed, Koeman will be the club’s third manager of the year, but he will take over with the added difficulty of the uncertainty about the club’s future.
With the presidential election coming up in March, he comes to the realization that he could be out of a job in less than 12 months if the incoming president – Bartomeu can not stand again – wants to surrender his own husband.
Meanwhile, Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen will miss the start of mid-September of the 2020-21 season, due to have surgery over a knee in the long term.
Ter Stegen will have surgery on the patellar tendon in his right knee on Tuesday. Sources close to the player say he will be out for about two months, with the new La Liga season scheduled to start on September 12.
“I have discussed this ‘cleaning’ with medical experts because there have been some irritations this season,” Ter Stegen wrote on social media. “It’s a proactive intervention to prevent and prepare for the future. I will need a few weeks to recover and go back to 100 percent. I am calm and positive about the situation, I will return soon.
Ter Stegen missed a number of games in January, including the Spanish Supercopa defeat to Atletico Madrid, because he received treatment for the injury. This enabled him to complete the campaign, but the problems did not go away and he opted for surgery.
The 28-year-old’s contract expires in 2022 and sources close to the player have always maintained his desire to stay at Camp Nou, but must be convinced that Barca are heading in the right direction on the field.
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