Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde is in an unenviable position after the team’s administrators failed to coax Chavei to train the team from now on, which prompted Andres Iniesta, the former captain to condemn the actions of his officials, describing them as “ugly”.
After losing Barca from Atletico Madrid last Thursday 2-3 in the Spanish Super Cup semi-finals, the club's sports director Eric Abidal and CEO Oscar Grau rushed to Qatar, in order to negotiate with Xavi, the former team captain and the current Qatari Al Sadd coach, about the possibility of him coaching the team, but The latter refused to take over the team's training now, preferring to talk about this topic next summer.
A source in Barcelona told "Reuters" that Xavi is currently focusing on the Qatar Cup final between his team and Duhail next Friday. The source added that Valverde is leading the team's training today, Monday.
Look who dropped by for today's workout! |
Iniesta said, in an interview, about the development of the relationship between Barca and Valverde, "Barcelona's handling was somewhat ugly, you have to respect the team coach ... Valverde's position is now much weaker than before."
"I hope that Barca will succeed in dealing with this situation, because what is going on is not good for the coach, the players, and even the fans."
He explained that Xavi and Dutch coach Ronald Koeman are suitable to train the team because they played for him and understood his mentality.
"The only person who answers a question if Xavi is ready to train Barca is Xavi himself, Koman and Xavi played for the team; the first one has more training experience but this is not critical."
On his relationship with club president Josep Maria Bartomeo, who gave Iniesta a life-long contract before the "painter" moved to Japan, Iniesta stressed, "I don't talk much to Bartomeo ... the relationship with him is good and the club in general."
Workout with available first team players on Tito Vilanova Field. |
Iniesta attended the Barca training today led by Valverde, with the latter meeting with Bartomeo, who "explains to him the club's move to find a new coach," according to the Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo.
It is noteworthy that the Spanish newspapers and media close to Barcelona changed their rhetoric towards Valverde - after Xavi refused to take over the team's training this month - and after the dismissal was achieved and inevitably occurring, talk began about the possibility of this issue.