Why Quique Setien should be the next manager of Barcelona

Andy West 20:22 12/11/2018
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  • Quique Setien

    Quique Setien should be the next manager of Barcelona.

    That might sound like an unnecessarily kneejerk reaction on the basis of just one result, but actually it’s far more than that.

    The victory enjoyed by Setien’s Real Betis at the Camp Nou on Sunday simply confirmed what has become increasingly clear over the last few years: he is the best-placed man to revive Barca’s fading philosophy.

    The former Racing Santander and Atletico Madrid midfielder’s coaching career began well over a decade ago, and became established with a long spell at Lugo, where he led the tiny Galician club to promotion into the second tier for the first time in two decades and kept them there.

    Then, in 2015, Setien moved to recently promoted La Liga side Las Palmas, where he inherited a team which was in the relegation zone and led them to a comfortable mid-table finish, playing smooth and elegant passing football along the way.

    The following year he left Las Palmas after a dispute with the board and found his way to Betis, where last season’s sixth-placed finish was the club’s highest in 13 years. And now, despite a wobbly start, they are well placed to match or perhaps even better that achievement.

    So Setien is no instant hero. His progression has been long in the making, and throughout that time he has consistently trodden along the same path, imbuing all his teams with the same kind of football we saw from Betis on Sunday: passing out from the back, creating space through quick and slick interchanges in midfield, and pressing fearlessly high up the pitch whenever possession is lost.

    That philosophy, of course, is inspired by the style of play famously implemented by Barcelona throughout their glory years, stretching back from Pep Guardiola to Frank Rijkaard, Louis van Gaal and Johan Cruyff.

    Setien is an avowed ‘Cruyffista’, and his bold post-game statement in the Camp Nou media room that “Cruyff would have been happy with my team today” is the highest form of praise he could give himself.

    You could object that none of this really matters. What matters at a club like Barcelona is trophies, and Setien has won precisely none of them over the course of his coaching career (his promotion with Lugo came through the playoffs after a third-place finish). Why should Setien get arguably the biggest coaching job in world football when he’s never won anything?

    But the key point is that Setien would fit Barca perfectly because he is perfectly aligned to the club’s philosophy and, in such a ruthlessly competitive business as elite football, that is the only way to bring about sustained success.

    Look at the example of Manchester United: while they were led by Sir Alex Ferguson, trophies followed at a rapid rate. Since he left, however, the Red Devils have lurched from one playing style – or philosophy – to another, all of which have been highly incongruous with each other … and now look at where they are.

    Barca, of course, have a very strong identity which has been built up over many years, starting with Rinus Michels in the early 1970s. Pass, move, press.

    Now, that identity is in danger of being lost. Ernesto Valverde is a good coach who is doing a decent job in testing circumstances, reviving a team which had burned out under predecessor Luis Enrique.

    But he is cautious by nature and not a natural fit for Barca’s philosophy, and the foundations of the team’s success – the fundamental concepts of ‘who we are’ and ‘how we play’ – risk being swept away if they are not resurrected in the next couple of years.

    Setien has already shown that he ‘gets it’. He has applied those methods consistently, year after year, and always achieved significant success relative to expectations. He deserves a shot at the big time, and his methods would find no better home than the Camp Nou.

    After all, if he can coax the wonderful football we saw on Sunday out of Andres Guardado, Loren Moron and 37 year-old Joaquin, just imagine what he would do with Sergio Busquets, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi

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