Barcelona hierarchy and players deem Quique Setien as unconvincing.
Poor results and performances along with quarrel with the dressing room might be enough to force Quique Setien out of the coaching role at Barcelona.
The Catalans are prepared to part ways with Seiten unless he shows results with drastic improvements. The squad are currently chasing Real Madrid for the La Liga titles while not having any realistic changes at the current Champions League campaign.
The experienced manager took over Ernesto Valverde in January in order to improve the squad’s performance as they often seemed to rely heavily on Lionel Messi despite having many talented footballers among them.
Despite showing signs of improvement, their latest performance against Sevilla, Athletic Bilbao, and Celta Vigo has shown significant signs of issues that are still lurking. The heavy reliance on Lionel Messi is still present and evident in every match.
Club president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and sporting director, Eric Abidal, recently met with the Spanish coach to discuss the current state and future of the club. RAC1 had reported that the trio were analyzing the current performance while discussing Setien’s future.
One thing is clear, if Setien fails to deliver huge improvements to the squad’s performance, he will most likely be sacked before or after the current season.
Here are 8 potential candidates that the Barca hierarchy could choose to replace Setien.
GARCIA PIMIENTA
Garcia Pimienta is the current Barca B manager who was very closely linked with the first-team job when Ernesto Valverde was tipped to be removed. The 45-year-old has not only been a coach for the youth at Barca since 2006 but is also a La Masia graduate himself. He was a Barca player from 1975 to 1999 along with being a coach at La Masia since 2006, meaning he has been closely working with the Catalans for close to 40 years. He is still available as a temporary replacement for Setien as Barca desires either Xavi or Guardiola but Garcia has the potential to become one of the greatest to coach the first-team. AS reported that Pimienta could take over Setien for the remainder of the current season if the team gets negative results against Atletico and Villareal.
EUSEBIO SACRISTAN
Eusebio has been associated with Barca for many years. He spent 7 years at the Camp Nou as a player where he made 203 appearances. He was the former Barca B coach from 2011-2015, qualifying him to taker over the first-team role any day. To further qualify him as a great candidate, the 56-year-old also spent 5 years, from 2003-2008, as an assistant coach under Frank Rijijaard.
He is currently available in the market after poor managerial spells with La Liga sides, Sociedad and Girona. While many better options are available to take over Setien, Sacristan is a strong option as he truly understands the Barca philosophy.