Ernesto Valverde
Spanish media reports said on Monday that Barcelona is going to dismiss his coach, Ernesto Valverde, who, as expected, supervised a training session during which the Catalan club resumed its preparations, after its disappointing participation in the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Spanish sports media reported that after a disastrous week, Valverde arrived three hours before the start of the training session at the facilities of the sports center, Joan Gamper, the club's training headquarters.
She added that Valverde then led the training session for Barcelona, the first after three days of rest granted to the players after returning from Saudi Arabia after the Catalan club left the semi-finals of the Super Cup by losing to Atletico Madrid 2-3.
After the training session, the 55-year-old coach met club president Josep Maria Bartomeo, who then moved to the Camp Nou stadium where he participated in a club board meeting in the presence of officials such as CEO Oscar Grau, technical chief Javier Boardas, Vice President Jordi Cardoner And the French sports director Eric Abidal.
According to Radio Catalonia Radio, Valverde was informed that the club would discuss the terms of his dismissal with his agent, while ESPN indicated that the coach collected his luggage from the team's training center, which indicates his departure.
The Catalan sports daily El Mundo Deportivo spoke of a meeting of club officials on Sunday to discuss the future of Valverde, and then stated on Monday that Barcelona had contacted Italian coach Massimiliano Alegre, who has been without work since leaving Juventus in the summer of 2019, after leading him to the league title The local team for five consecutive seasons and to the Champions League final twice during the five seasons spent with him.
The possibility of dismissing Valverde is not related to losing the Super Cup to Atletico, because after disappointment in the Champions League competition against Italian Roma in 2018 and Liverpool in 2019, the 55-year-old faced harsh criticism from the club's supporters because of the disappointing performance, and his shares recently declined in Remaining in office after officials abandoned his support and traveled to Doha to present the position to club legend Al Sadd coach currently Chave Hernandez.
Xavi, 39, has refused to accept the mission at the present time, according to press reports that indicated that he prefers to take over from next summer, but Barcelona officials will continue to contact several technical managers to succeed Valverde.
In the event that Valverde was sacked, the media indicated that the "Blaugrana" training would be the task of reserve team coach Javier Garcia Pimenta, at least temporarily.
But the media also circulated the names of Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, 47, the article from Tottenham's English coach last November, the Dutchman Ronald Koeman, 56, the coach of his country currently, and the former Real Betis coach Kiki Sitten, 61.
Barcelona received a severe blow on Sunday as well as leaving the semi-finals of the Super Cup and the mysterious future of his coach Valverde, by announcing the absence of Uruguayan international scorer Luis Suárez for four months after surgery on the right knee.
Ernesto Valverde
