Ernesto Valverde will never be the purists' choice at Barcelona, but might be best man to lead Lionel Messi & Co.

The 55-year-old has signed a new deal with the Catalan club until 2020, with an option for one more year
New deal: Ernesto Valverde
AFP/Getty Images/Lluis Gene
Ben Hayward15 February 2019

There will be no coaching change at Camp Nou this summer. Barcelona announced on Friday that Ernesto Valverde has renewed his contract with the Blaugrana for one more season, with the option of another after that. The news, needless to say, was not met with enthusiasm by everyone.

Barcelona's fans, particularly the younger ones, are notoriously difficult to please. After watching Pep Guardiola's great team play perhaps the finest football ever and seeing the club claim two trebles in the past decade, expectations have never been higher at the Catalan club.

Many of those supporters have never taken to Valverde. While there was respect and admiration for the way in which he brought stability following the traumatic departure of Neymar in the summer of 2017 and led Barca to a Liga and Copa double in his debut season, the style of football has never really been to the taste of many.

Valverde was signed by Johan Cruyff as a player, but has not really embraced the Dutchman's football philosophy in the same way Guardiola did.

Then again, there are not many coaches out there playing that type of football at the highest level.

Pep is happy at Manchester City and has said he is unlikely to return to Barca as coach anyway, while Maurizio Sarri is barely clinging onto his job at Chelsea, Mauricio Pochettino claimed he would rather work on a form than train the Blaugrana (due to his Espanyol links) and Jorge Sampaoli (an option when Valverde joined) is rebuilding his career in Brazil with Santos after last summer's World Cup debacle with Argentina.

One man who has been linked is Quique Setien. The Betis boss is definitely a purist and he is also a devotee of Barca's famous style and juego de posición. He is the preferred option of many fans. The hipsters' choice. But he is untried in a top job and while his side beat Barca at Camp Nou this season, they also lost 3-0 at Leganes recently.

At Barcelona, style continues to be important — probably more so than at any other club in the world right now. But results remain the priority and for all Setien's obvious qualities, he would be a risk. Valverde, while perhaps not as exciting, is certainly a safer option at this point in time.

Valverde is unpopular with the purists at Barcelona.
AFP/Getty Images/Ander Gillenea

The former Athletic Club coach has the support of the Barca squad, Lionel Messi included, and has led the Blaugrana to 65 wins, 22 draws and just nine defeats in his 96 official matches so far, winning three trophies. And in this, his second season, Barca lead La Liga by six points from Real Madrid, while they will face Los Blancos in the Copa del Rey semi-final second leg later this month (after a 1-1 draw at Camp Nou) and meet Lyon in the last 16 of the Champions League next week.

It is in the Champions League where Valverde had his biggest disappointment so far as Barca boss, losing out to Roma in the quarter-finals last season despite a 4-1 win over the Italians in the first leg. This term, the continental competition is the big priority for many, especially the fans, and there will be much anger if the Catalans suffer another early exit.

That said, Valverde could go on to win the treble and a lot of supporters would still not be happy. Expectations are at a ridiculous high at the moment among many at the Catalan club, but the truth is that there is no clear candidate to replace Valverde right now and until there is, he is probably the best man for the job.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in