"Quique, go now" was an unfair epitaph for the agitated, excessive and punctually radiant life of Quique Setién (Santander, 1958) in Betis, to whose house he returns this Sunday with the team of his dreams. Those words, engraved in marble in the coach's memory, chanted at Benito Villamarín, marked his definitive distancing with the green-white entity. Gone are the erratic press conferences, the challenges to their own hobby, the visible fatigue, their inability to refloat a bored ship, with no place in Europe, condemned again to choppy waters, to inconsequential routes. The curse of the half board. Again, despite daydreaming for a handful of months, nothing. The wandering

The victories were contingent for the Cantabrian, but the seal of his football was necessary. Irredeemable A stubbornness that ended up ballasting his project. Fattening his image of arrogance, always challenging, badly faced. A master who defined himself as "a person of very deep convictions," who values ​​more "effort than results." He wanted a year of redemption, but Haro and Catalan could not with the pressure. They preferred to change the book rather than turn the page.

Setién had a difficult defense with such a particular ideology, so unfit for these times of urgency and confetti. Defeat, like death, equals us below. And yet, despite the final lead, his unfinished Betis still finds defenders, the memory of vibrant matches and the revaluation he made of a discrete squad. Guardado, a soccer player already in the final phase of his career, gave an extraordinary performance. Canales achieved internationality. The unquestionable guarantee of Pau López under sticks and at the start of play. Lo Celso relaunched his dull career. Junior Firpo went from artificial grass in Third to the grass of Camp Nou. Fabian corroborated what many intuited. Loren guaranteed the goal. And Joaquin extended his career with a style that allowed him to run less and shine more.

Institutional instability

A daring team, which won at Santiago Bernabéu, at Camp Nou, at Sánchez Pizjuán or at San Siro, who finished sixth in the League (20017/18), reached the semifinals in Copa del Rey (20018/19) and got develop an elegant, associative, fast football. A promising game that gradually fell apart, buried by institutional instability, the fracture with Serra Ferrer and the little art with the hood of a Cantabrian that went from authenticity to antipathy in a blink of an eye. Rubi's hesitant start this season reactivated the relationship between Betis and Setién, who was close to returning to the house of those who put the bags at the door. Football and love, states and not borders.

Seien walked away from Betis without looking back. His big dream was to train Barcelona and he has succeeded. There it has been found, surprise, with the rudeness of this sport: the style is very good while the scoreboard falls in your favor. Nothing new. The rest, folder rhymes, smelly cartisores, literature and steam. Not even in Barcelona, ​​museum of the horizontal pass, is it safe from the emotional pragmatism of the fans. In Heliopolis, the wounds are gradually healing. What has come does not improve, so far, what left.

In Betis de Rubi there are echoes of Setién. Bartra's angular work, the exit from the side through off-hook interiors, the asymmetry of the drawing when Fekir plays, similar to what Lo Celso represented. A rubric under the rectangle of grass. Justice for Setién, a coach who made Villamarín vibrate before their love and possession were broken, from using them so much.

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  • FC Barcelona
  • Quique Setién
  • Real Betis Football

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