BARCELONA are on the verge of appointing Quique Setien with Ernesto Valverde set to be sacked in coming hours, according to reports.
The Spanish giants are thought to have failed in their pursuit of club legend Xavi to take over from Valverde.
Barcelona are on the verge of hiring Quique Setien to replace Ernesto ValverdeCredit: EPA
But now they have turned their attention to former Real Betis chief Setien, 61, in a bid to stay atop the La Liga table.
Barcelona are currently top of the league, but club chiefs are said to have grown weary of Valverde’s approach.
And they have turned to out-of-work Setien, who left Betis at the end of last season.
Setien was linked with a move to the Nou Camp in January 2019, but ultimately stayed at Betis for the season.
But Barcelona are excited at what the Spaniard can bring to the club with his insistence that football should be played in an attacking, attractive manner.
Setien recently told Marca: “Winning is what everyone wants.
“Even the children at the age of eight or ten came to the car window to tell me ‘you have to win today, uh, you have to win.’
“And of course you want to win, how can I not want to win?
“I’ve featured in more than a thousand matches as both coach and player and it’s not that I have no ambition or desire to win, but victory must come as a result of doing things well.
“I have always thought that a victory is not worthy on in its own.
“I like it when my team play well most of the time, having the ball, because I know that in this way I will have many more chances to win than the rivals.
“And that is sometimes difficult to understand; this reasoning is mine. [People] want to see your team win. Many do not care about the ways. I [do] care.”
Barcelona’s Samuel Umtiti shows off his impressive ball control in training
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
