Barcelona coach Quique Setien has proclaimed that he is not certain about his next moments at the Catalan club following his consensus to Lionel Messi’s comment on the current shabby form of his team.
The 61-year old hinted that he will likely be dismissed before Barcelona take on Napoli in a potential Uefa Champions League round of 16 match in August.
Quique Setien was recruited after Barcelona sacked Ernesto Valverde in January. He became a makeshift option after former player Xavi Hernandez rejected an offer to return to the club for managerial role.
Prior to his appointment, Barcelona had hope to complete a treble at the end of the season. This has however gone into smoke after he led the team to suffer eviction from Athletico Bilbao in Copa del Rey quaterfinal and the latest being League title loss to arch-rivals Real Madrid a night ago.
After Thursday’s match which saw 10-man Osasuna cruise to a 2-1 win at Barcelona home ground while Real Madrid were consequently crowned La Liga champions on the same night. Lionel Messi slammed the team style of play and Setien has admittedly seconded his captain’s critics.
“I agree with the post-match comments from Lionel Messi about self-criticism, and we must look at ourselves in the coming weeks. I am responsible for our situation, as I am the manager of the team, If we continue like this, we will lose the game against Napoli.” Setien told Spanish media.
Reports in the Spanish mainstream media also suggests that the board at Barcelona are unhappy and the decision to let the manager off the hook at the end of the season maybe fast tracked which Setien sceptically responded to when posed.
“I hope we will face the Champions League this summer as a different team, but I am not sure about what happens next for me”
In the event that Quique Setien is relieved of his job in coming days. García Pimienta, Barcelona B handler will be a potential replacement. Also, Xavi could make a sudden return after recently declaring his interest for Barcelona’s coaching role.
“The biggest hope I have now is to be Barca coach and get Barca back to winning ways” Xavi was quoted by Football Inside.
The world cup winner said “I’m a club man. I would like to return at the right moment to start a project from zero. I’ve said it a lot of times but I want to take footballing decisions at Barcelona. It’s clear that after the elections the stage would be set, of course. I’m not ruling anything out. They came for me in January, we were speaking. I told them the circumstances and timing weren’t right.”
