DBasia.news – Quique Setien reportedly received a call to face the President of Barcelona, Josep Maria Bartomeu. There is an important discussion between them.
This was revealed by ESPN, who got a leak from his sources at the Catalan club. The summons was made after Barca failed to defend the LaLiga title, which this season was won by Real Madrid, the eternal rival.
The report stated that Josep Maria Bartomeu wanted to look at Setien’s mental state and whether the entrenador was considered resilient enough to take Barcelona through the current crisis, after losing out to Real Madrid in LaLiga this season.
It was also stated that Quique Setien would at least train Barcelona when against Alaves in the last match at LaLiga on Monday (7/20). Josep Maria Bartomeu also plans to keep Setien in his position for the match against Napoli in the second leg of the Champions League last 16 on 8 August.
After Barcelona lost 1-2 when entertaining Osasuna on Friday (7/17), which together with Real Madrid’s success in locking the LaLiga title, Lionel Messi criticized the condition of his own team which he called “inconsistent” and “weak”.
According to ESPN sources, Bartomeu is aware of the tension between Blaugrana players and Quique Setien. But he still hopes the gap of five days after LaLiga is finished will be able to cool the atmosphere at Camp Nou.
Quique Setien himself was actually just hired by Barcelona on January 13, 2020, replacing the fired Ernesto Valverde. He was contracted until June 2022 and has only coached Barca less than 30 matches so far, but his future has been widely speculated.
Later reports emerged that in the near future Barcelona could have promoted the reserve team coach, Francesc Xavier Garcia Pimienta, as a substitute for Quique Setien called the ESPN source in Barca with, “not the type we wanted”.