Barca line up Pochettino as new manager
BARCELONA will announce the sacking of Quique Setien this week, with ex-Tottenham coach Mauricio Pochettino best placed to take over.
Pochettino does not have unanimous support at the club but his friend, the Barcelona president, Josep Bartomeu remains hopeful he can convince fellow board members to hire the 48-year-old, who Spurs sacked last November.
Setien’s position became untenable after Barcelona lost in humiliating fashion 8-2 to Bayern Munich on Friday in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The club have already made the decision to dismiss the 61-year-old but will only officially confirm it after a board meeting that should take place tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.
Pochettino (pictured) recently backtracked on previous remarks that he would ‘rather go back and work on the farm in Argentina’ than coach Barca, having previously played for and coached their city rivals Espanyol.
In an apologetic interview with El
Pais two weeks ago, he said: ‘Espanyol is where I made my name, but I am not arrogant and I don’t like having made a statement like that. Perhaps now I would not have said that because in life you never know what will happen.’
Xavi is the man almost all Barcelona supporters want to see take charge but he has already said he will not return under the present board.
Bartomeu is currently gauging the likely reaction to any Pochettino appointment. He cannot afford another unpopular decision amid calls for him to resign as president.
Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta labelled Bartomeu’s post-match interview after the Bayern demolition ‘inept’ and ‘cowardly’, and the club’s players want him to step down despite having a year left on his mandate.
Lionel Messi has a year left on his contract at the club and will not renew while Bartomeu remains in charge.
Barcelona were a laughing stock in Spain after the Bayern mauling. Both Barcelona-based Diario Sport and Madrid-based Diario AS went with the front-page headline: ‘Historic Humiliation’, while ‘Embarrassment’ was the word plastered across the front page of Marca.
The image of the debacle was Messi sat disconsolate at half-time. The 33-year-old will use uncertainty over his future to help force early elections. Bartomeu could go through to the end of next season, but amid so much bad feeling towards him and his board he could announce a compromise this week with elections coming at the start of 2021.