BARCELONA – The Barcelona that will receive Atlético de Madrid on Tuesday at the Camp Nou is once again a volcanic club. Busy at balancing the accounts from the offices, with an express transfer / exchange from Arthur to Juventus, in the locker room the atmosphere is no better.
Two consecutive draws at home in Seville and Vigo led him to lose four points, stay more than ever at the expense of Real Madrid and collapse the credit of a Quique Setién who has lost his ascendancy among the squad and who is already doubted in the club. So much so that the possibility that Javier García Pimienta, coach of the subsidiary, was recruited urgently to lead the first team, began to take over from the club to ESPN Deportes.
Preparing the details of the renewal contract that he has already agreed with Barça for the next two seasons and that must be made official in the next few hours, the immediate challenge for García Pimienta is to prepare and play the play-off for promotion to the 2nd Division with the subsidiary … From there, it will be seen.
“He is focused one hundred percent on the play-off, he already knows that he will have at his disposal all the young people who work with the first team and nothing else arises,” explained a source close to the coach, warning that, from hence the door cannot be closed to any possibility. “If things don’t improve in the first team it wouldn’t be ruled out.”
UNSUPPORTED
That urgent and desperate decision would begin to take shape in view of a relationship that is suspected to be broken between Setien’s coaching staff and the squad. What happened during the second half pause in Balaídos’ party made this distance clear.
The television cameras captured perfectly how Leo Messi, when being claimed by Eder Sarabia, turned around and left the crowd of players when Setien’s assistant was addressing him, returning shortly afterwards with his face absolutely absent before the incredulous look of the coach.
From the club there is a gap between Setién and the players who “had never seen Valverde” and Luis Suárez’s statements only increased the suspicion of divorce between the coaches and the players, who in the dressing room, after the tie against Celta, openly showed their bewilderment at the bench decisions.
Facing the signing of a coach with a vision of the future is considered impossible at the Camp Nou, taking into account the end of the journey of Bartomeu’s leadership until the elections to be held in the summer of 2021 but those who saw Quique Setién as the best possible manager already they doubt their choice.
“It was a disappointment” is resolved at a dramatic moment, both in the season and in office.
And betting, in a desperate decision, on a coach like García Pimienta, who was already spoken about (although without much conviction) when he dismissed Valverde in January, is now more likely.
“He has a very good hand in B’s locker room and with him he would see more options for young people” he summarizes, presenting it as a breath of fresh air in a club altered again on all fronts.
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