When you’re the best, you demand the best around you, and it seemed abundantly clear from Lionel Messi’s body language last season, that Quique Setien wasn’t well respected in the Barcelona dressing room.
The Catalan club’s former manager has recently told of his difficulties at managing the Argentinian, and a report in Mundo Deportivo, cited by the Daily Mirror, hints at the troubles.
Apparently, after taking Setien to task over his tactics, the Cantabrian exploded at the Argentinian.
‘If you don’t like what I said, you know where the door is,” Setien said, prompting Messi to laugh in his manager’s face.
Such a scenario being played out in front of the whole squad would have cast immediate doubt on Setien’s position.
It appears that the former manager never truly grasped how difficult it would be to control a dressing room full of stars that have been there and won it all.
For all of the plaudits that came Setien’s way for the style of football that he played at Real Betis, he’d never managed players at such a level.
Given the way in which it ended at Barca, it’s a fair bet that it’ll be a while before Setien decides to pursue such a high level appointment again.