DBasia.news – Barcelona officially ended their cooperation with Quique Setien as the main coach. The dismissal was due to Setien failure to give The Blaugrana a title.
After losing the La Liga title to Real Madrid and the Copa del Rey to Athletic Bilbao, a humiliating 2-8 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League ensured Barcelona to be without trophy this season. This crushing defeat also opened Setien’s way out of the Camp Nou.
“The Board of Directors has agreed that Quique Setien is no longer the coach of the first team. This is the first decision in a broader restructuring of the first team to be agreed between the current technical secretary and the new coach, which will be announced in the coming days,” reads a statement from Barcelona as quoted by Marca, Tuesday (18/8).
In addition to Setien’s dismissal, Barcelona announced they would hold new presidential elections in March 2021.
Setien leaves Camp Nou with one year remaining on his contract, plus the option to extend the deal until 2022. Relationship confusion, disagreements between Setien’s coaching staff, especially Eder Sarabia’s assistant, and Barcelona players, forced the directors to make a decision.
Troubles started during the El Clasico at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in March when Sarabia was caught on camera badmouthing the players. Signs of split in the dressing room were evident when Barcelona drew 2-2 with Celta Vigo in June. At that time Barcelona star Lionel Messi appeared to have ignored Sarabia’s orders during the break. After that draw at Balaidos, Luis Suarez hinted at his dissatisfaction with Setien and his coaching team.
The peace between Messi and Setien comes ahead of Napoli’s visit in August to make things more comfortable before the Champions League roll back again. However, the defeat to Bayern Munich in Lisbon was enough to see Barcelona’s club board to take action.
After releasing Setien, Barcelona are reportedly approaching Ronald Koeman to sign him as the new main coach.