Barcelona poised to sack Valverde and appoint Setien - media reports
BARCELONA, (Reuters) - Barcelona are on the verge of sacking coach Ernesto Valverde and apppoint former Real Betis coach Quique Setien as his replacement, Spanish media reported on Monday.
Inaki Ibanez, Valverde’s representative, told Spanish television station MEGA the coach is waiting for his exit package to be agreed.
“Ernesto is waiting for them to rescind his contract, it’s not the best moment for any coach,” said Ibanez outside Camp Nou late Monday.
Valverde took charge of training earlier in the day and met with president Josep Maria Bartomeu before a board meeting, in which it was agreed that the coach would be sacked even though the Catalans top the league standings at the halfway point of the campaign.
The 55-year-old led Barcelona to successive La Liga titles in 2018 and 2019 and one Copa del Rey since joining the club in 2017, although his failure to win the Champions League weakened his footing at the club.
A 2-2 draw with bottom-of-the-table Espanyol and last week’s Spanish Super Cup defeat by Atletico Madrid turned the tide against the coach.
Diario Sport and Marca reported Setien has agreed a contract to take over at Barcelona.
Setien, 61, coached Real Betis last season but left by mutual consent after leading the club to a 10th-place finish.
The former Atletico Madrid and Racing Santander player is known for his possession football and attacking gameplan, which suits the way Barcelona were known for playing in the iconic Pep Guardiola era. (Reuters) - Australia’s one-time child prodigy Bernard Tomic was eliminated in the first round of the Australian Open qualifiers in Melbourne yesterday, saying he couldn’t breathe because of bushfire smoke hanging over Melbourne Park.
The 27-year-old, who has earned over $6 million in prize money but seen his ranking plummet to 183 in the last two years, lost 7-6(4) 6-3 to American Denis Kudla.
Tomic first questioned the chair umpire about the regulations concerning match conditions when trailing 5-4 in the first set and then took a medical timeout while trailing 1-2 in the second, where a doctor cleared him to resume playing.
“No air’s going in, I’m getting tired so easy,” Tomic told the trainer and doctor during the timeout. “It’s not like I’m the fittest guy... I just can’t breathe.”
No stranger to controversy, Tomic who did not receive a wildcard for the year’s first Grand Slam - simply appeared to stop running for points as Kudla wrapped up the encounter in 68 minutes.
Tomic, a rising star in the junior circuit who won the 2008 Australian Open boy’s singles crown, once saved five match points as a 15-year-old in the first round of the men’s qualifiers.
He was fined 45,000 pounds ($58,455) last year at Wimbledon for not playing to “required professional standards” when he lost in straight sets to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a 58-minute first round match.
Tomic was not the only player to struggle with bushfire smoke though. Slovenia’s Dalila Jakupovic collapsed in a coughing fit and retired from qualifying after smoke plunged Melbourne’s air quality to “hazardous” levels.
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