The turmoil shoved the third season of Ernesto Valverde as coach of Barcelona since before the take-off. The ballast accumulated since may, after the elimination of the semi-finals of the Champions League, with the collapse against Liverpool (4-0 after having defeated 3-0 at the Camp Nou), and the defeat in the Cup final against Valencia (2-1). Two failures in three weeks, with the aggravating circumstance that the of the Champions league came after the disappointment of a year earlier, in the quarterfinals in Rome, where the barca team was petrified and conceded a 3-0 which made useless the 4-1 from the first leg.
The club sought a head of steam and Valverde was on the target. He won a Cup and the two Leagues from which he was relieved in 2017 to Luis Enrique, but everything led to think in the spring that he was not going to enjoy the renewal of the contract he signed in February. That commitment, until June 2020, includes an option for extension for another season that would have tied its end with the president Josep Maria Bartomeu, as in 2021, we held elections and may not seek reelection, and also with Messi, who signed up this year, even though, in your case, with the prerogative to carry out its goodbye to June 2020.
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The crisis of the previous season was ahead, in July, the vice-president sport, Jordi Mestre, one of the main critics with the continuity of Valverde. All this while the club was in the middle of negotiations to incorporate Griezmann and recover to Neymar. From there, the problems arreciaron. The lesions of Dembélé and Messi, the adaptation of Griezmann, the question about the continuity of Rakitic, who barely played in the first part of the season. And above all, the long negotiation for repescar to Neymar, supported by the costumes, to the point that Messi slid the daily Sport: “No, we had nothing. Honestly I don’t know if the club did everything possible.” Neymar, precisely the player who just was able to align Valverde, who signed on as coach of Barcelona in may of 2017, just a month and a half before that the brazilian will leave the PSG.
After the defeat in the first match of LaLiga at San Mamés and the tie in The Sadar, Ramón Catalá, a friend of the technician, said that Valverde was going wrong at the club. “We already know how to go about these things, depends on the day you get caught, there are some good and others worse. What compared to whom? I am quite well here,” he objected, the Txingurri. The problems were oozing, and Valverde, moderate in his way, recognized him: “what Of zero to ten how much you are tired of the transfer market?”, asked on August 30. “Nine and a half”. Already days before, had warned: “it Is inconvenient to start the competition without the template closed”. On the 13th of September, while Messi was recovering from her injury and, after the tie to two in the field of Osasuna, arengó: “There are players who have to take a step forward”.
After the defeat in Granada, 2-0, the barça squad dined at a restaurant. Mundo Deportivo published an article in which it recounted a series of episodes that illustrated the power of the costume and the control exercised by the players in the club. Pique took the word: “we Know the club, know the journals that are related to the club, we know the articles that come out and many times we know who writes it but the sign of another person. We have to be all together, not only players, also the fans, the board. As I have already said in Pamplona. We have to keep the club together because if we don’t, we will hurt you”, he exhorted. Valverde, after the defeat in Granada, which remained at 0-0 at Borussia, Dortmund, confessed: “I am examined; this is so from the beginning, we we’re playing. I know that in the site I’m sent the results. And also that the coach is always in the crosshairs”. It was the 23 of September And the season had not begun.
The divisions were taking place. On the 24th of October, despite the victory in Prague on 1-2, Ter Stegen confessed: “we have Not played to the level that we wanted. And thankfully, we have taken the three points. But it is necessary to talk about some things. Need to improve a few”. Valverde countered: “The parties are seen in many ways. But if we have to resolve something is inside, not outside. There are fields in which to win you have to suffer. I do not think so much.”
In November, Dembélé suffered his eighth hamstring injury and out of the activity, at least until February. In December, Valverde said: “I have Vidal and Aleñá for January”. The chilean denounced the club for non-payment of a bonus in the concept of variables. The midfielder of the quarry was loaned out to Betis. Last week, after the defeat in the Supercopa, against Atletico, the Txingurri predicted: “we Know that there is a instability standing when there are no results, when you lose. I guess that speak of this, will be inevitable.” The die was cast.
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