Following the defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup, FC Barcelona decided to offer the manager job to Xavi Hernandez. A meeting took place between the Barça legend, Eric Abidal and Ramon Planes.
However, Xavi turned the role down and this forced the club to explore other options. Earlier this morning Quique Setien was presented as the new head coach of Barça.
Curiously neither the club president, Josep Bartomeu, nor the director of football, Eric Abidal, mentioned Xavi by name in the presentation. Not even when they were directly asked about the meeting with the former player.
“The director of football was the one searching for the coach and there's no one better than him to talk about that," Bartomeu replied when asked about Xavi.
Abidal, who refused to talk about his trip to Doha in order to meet Xavi, avoided the question completely. "A great deal of work went into the search for the right coach and when the moment came to make a decision, the board had the answers."
"Every coach has his own methods but, when it came to making a decision, we had to think about the club and the project," continued Abidal.
"We like his methods, his philosophy and we know a lot of things could change but we're confident in the whole squad."
Vidakln
410
Thanks EV, WELCOME SETIEN At 61 years of age, Quique Setien has been given the opportunity to sit on the bench of Barcelona, the club to have inspired his whole approach to coaching. He claimed to have been watching the team with keen interest in the past 13 years and envious of the great team. But more importantly he added this - 'Yesterday, I was walking around my hometown with cows around me and now I'm here at Barcelona managing the best players in the world. STAYING PREPARED - even when you are sacked by the average Betis and have to wait months before another offer, just hang on. As a Barcelona fan and lover, I am excited that we got rid of EV, and I am more than happy that we didn't bring back Xavi, at least not at this time, and it may never happen soon IF at all it will ever happen. Good enough, we avoided Mr. Koeman too. Klopp especially and Pep both appear unrealistic and unattainable, I'm not sure if Poch is still our city rival and I am surprised that Ten Hag wasn't in the running. In Setien's team, there is an Eder Sarabia that may end up like Zidane understudying Ancelotti at Real Madrid. I think Eder may be our best profit if Setien's tenure fare well. Just like Pep Guardiola left us with the genius Tito Vilanova (God bless his soul). The "6 months + 1 year + 1 year" kind of bizarre contract was drawn with Xavi and club elections in mind. But Setien has his chance to engrave himself into the history books and shatter the contract schemes. Back to the pitch, the first job for Setien will be to wake up the perennial winners that have been sedated by the mediocre approach of EV and to ship out those who can't be awoken from coma. Barcelona must regain the business mindedness that typified our glory days - bleed for the 3 points while being a good ambassador of the game and the club. The urgency that we lost under EV must be restored, no need having the ball if you don't know what to do with it. Return to tiki taka but productively so. Attack attack attack is the way to defend. Let opponents forget how to attack you because they don't want to leave their goalie exposed to Barca's constant onslaught. We have a tidy goalkeeping situation. We have never had it this good in many years. In Ter Stergen and Neto, we have two reliable goalkeepers being shadowed by a bright Inaki. Semedo is our best right back, Roberto can back up. TAA is the first guy I'll snap from this Liverpool team if I have the chance but I know Liverpool may be asking for Mbappe's transfer fee for TAA. We can't get Pavard and Kimmich. So, Emerson or Red Bull Leipzig’s Lukas Klostermann appears to be the solution to Dani Alves replacement. Junior Firpo is our best option for the left back, our darling Alba is no longer reliable. An upgrade on Firpo or a back up will be essential business as well. Tadibo, Lenglet, Araujo and Umtiti might well be our central back pairing for the future. Pique is no longer consistent. Busquets gave Setien a signed jersey but Sergio is no longer the 2011 version. Install De Jong there. Arthur Melo besides an appropriately deployed Coutinho is the best midfield I can wish for Barcelona (in Xavi and Iniesta's roles respectively). Use Vidal, Puig, Busquets, Alena and Roberto to tweak the tactics to opponents' specs. Sell on Rafinha and Rakitic. And we have to always be on the look out for shrewd signings like Liverpool's Milner, Robertson, Matip, Mane, Coutinho and Salah. We don't need Neymar for God's sake!! And we don't need the distraction that comes with the transfer sagas. We just need Mbappe, he's the closest heir to replace Messi in world football. An attack comprising of Messi, Suarez, Dembele and Griezman looks healthy on paper but not on the pitch. AG hasn't really sparkled and I still don't know why we signed him up, he's almost 29. Dembele needs resurrection miracle, discipline and staying fit. Suarez and Messi are 33 in few months. For the future, We need Mbappe in the middle flanked by Fati and a disciplined Dembele. Griezman should be made part of the Mbappe deal. Deploy Messi while Fati continues to learn and deploy Suarez when available. Mbappe is the ONLY signing we need, else spend €110m on Martinez and balance the sheet with Griezman's sale. That leaves us with 3 attackers with average age of 20 or so. C. Perez and Juventus'-like deals should be used to assemble a healthy and competitive bench. Or Mbappe + Martinez + Fati if Dembele refuse to resurrect. We need versatility, depth and freshness in the attacking department. Line up 2021: Ter Stergen, Emerson/Klostermann, Tadibo, Lenglet/Umtiti, Firpo, De Jong, Arthur, Coutinho/Busquets/Vidal, Mbappe, Fati/Messi and Martinez/Dembele/Griez. Looks more French, German and South American than Spanish but that's where we are. Barcelona is MORE THAN A CLUB, not just a Spanish family. Cut down the average age of the team. Sack underperforming guys, clear out and carefully and expertly manage the twilight of legends' careers. Develop and integrate the academy guys and be alert with best bargains in the transfer market. Barcelona deserves to have the best footballers in the world, across every position of the pitch, including the bench and dug out. And, we have to be very patient with the new coach. No trophy burdens, just restore the team to factory settings and we'll certainly have many trophies to celebrate... Welcome on board Quique Setien and co.....
SINGAM23
10
nice game played, Abidal & Bartomeu