After Barcelona’s abject hammering at the hands of Bayern Munich last Friday, it was only a matter of time before Quique Setien was dispensed with as coach of the Blaugranes.
At the time of writing, the Cantabrian’s sacking has just been announced and his successor, expected to be Ronald Koeman, will be announced before the week is out.
Sporting director, Eric Abidal, is also expected to fall on his sword, and there may even be more changes as president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, looks to pick up the pieces of Barcelona’s worst night in 70 years.
One of his first decisions, if he had the love he professes for the club, should’ve been to resign himself, but instead, a concession of bringing forward next year’s presidential elections by four months has been made.
In much the same way that Setien only arrived because Xavi and Koeman himself turned the job down in January, the Dutchman rejoins the club because Xavi still doesn’t feel the time is right and Mauricio Pochettino clearly couldn’t bring himself to commit.
Given that any new presidential incumbent is likely to want to bring in his own coach, Koeman will have about a year to bring about success to the side he served so well when a member of the Dream Team.
His immaculate playing days are long since over, however, replaced by an underwhelming managerial career.
Aside from being a Nations League runner up whilst manager of the Dutch national side, he hasn’t won a trophy since 2009 when in charge of AZ, and even then it was only the Johan Cruyff Shield.
His last league title was the 2006/07 Eredivisie with PSV, and in his 19 years as a manager (not including his stints as an assistant), he’s had nine jobs.
He never appears to be at one place very long and his style of football, particularly at Everton, has been uninspiring and not the type to get Barca fans’ juices flowing.
It’s short-termism for the sake of it, and at this rate, unless Koeman makes a real impression from the off, don’t be surprised to see Lionel Messi calling Bartomeu’s bluff too.