Barcelona finally confirmed Luis Enrique as their new manager, replacing Tata Martino who left the club after just one season following the team’s failure to clinch the La Liga title.
The appointment of Enrique, who has a long association with Barca as a player and then B-team coach under Pep Guardiola, was inevitable after he was spotted meeting with the club’s sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta at his beachside home on the outskirts of the city two weeks ago.
The identity of the new manager is a clear sign that Barca have no intention of abandoning the short passing game that has been their trademark in the last few years.
Enrique implemented a similar style of play during his solitary successful season at Celta Vigo after earlier starting his coaching career under the guidance of Guardiola with Barca’s reserve team.
As a player Enrique controversially joined Barca from Real Madrid in the summer of 1996 and went on to greatly endear himself to the Nou Camp faithful over the course of eight seasons and 300 appearances, during which time he won two La Liga titles and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
Having signed a two-year contract, his first task will be to restore some positivity around the club, after a turbulent season ended in an appropriately negative fashion as they squandered the opportunity to become champions by drawing 1-1 at home to Atletico Madrid.
In an extremely busy day at the Nou Camp, Barca also confirmedthat Lionel Messi has signed a new contract, while youngsters Rafinha and Gerard Deulofeu have been promoted to the first-team squad after impressive loan spells away from the club.
The agreement with Messi on a new deal was first announced last week, and it has now been signed before the Argentine star leaves the country to join up with his national squad ahead of the World Cup.
Although it was initially believed that Messi would extend his contract for another year, it now appears that the expiration date of June 2018 remains, while the striker receives a colossal pay rise from €13m (Dh65.5m) to around €20m (Dh101.7m) per year.
Attacking midfielder Rafinha – the younger brother of Bayern Munich and former Barca star Thiago Alcantara – is particularly well known to Enrique, having spent last season playing under the new Barca boss at Celta Vigo, where he became a regular starter and totalled four goals and seven assists in 32 league appearances.
Deulofeu spent the season on loan at Everton, racking up 25 Premier League appearances and scoring three goals, including an excellent strike to earn a draw at Arsenal.
Another announcement is the long-anticipated news that 22-year old German international goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen has become Barca’s first summer signing on a free transfer from Borussia Monchengladbach to replace the long-serving Victor Valdes.
Also in the goalkeeping department, veteran Jose Manuel Pinto, who ended the season as first choice following an injury to Valdes, will leave after not being offered a new contract.
Pinto’s departure means that Barca will have to decide whether to stick with untested homegrown product Oier Olazabal, 24, who was on the bench for the last two months of the campaign, or recruit a more experienced keeper to back up and compete with ter Stegen.
Malaga’s Willy Caballero and Liverpool’s Pepe Reina, who spent last season on loan with Napoli, are strong candidates if the latter course of action is pursued.
There have also been developments in the coaching department, where Jordi Roura – who served as assistant to former boss Tito Vilanova and acted as caretaker in the second half of last season – has moved away from first team duties to lead the club’s youth development programme.
That leaves a vacancy for the position of assistant to new coach Enrique, with former Barca teammate Ivan De La Pena a possible candidate.
