The Spanish sport media is once again full of reports detailing the doubt around Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde.
On the face of it, things aren’t going so terribly for the Catalan club. Barca are top of La Liga and top of their Champions League group, despite the latter also containing Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan.
However, there’s undoubtedly a feeling of negativity around the place, and, as Marca point out on Friday, it all dates back to the ‘Liverpool debacle’ of last season.
That exit from European football and the way it happened has been covered continuously since, and despite Valverde staying in his job over the summer there’s sill a feeling that the Anfield loss sealed his fate… it’s just a question of timing.
Marca report Valverde is on the ‘long goodbye’, and explain the only reason Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu didn’t sack him in the summer was the lack of a replacement.
He was kept in the job ‘more for convenience than through conviction’.
The Spanish newspaper reports Barca won’t extend Valverde’s contract beyond this season, and it’s explained the manager himself now feels the same way.
Despite all of that, the exit may not be quick, and he could stay until the summer.
Ronald Koeman, the main replacement candidate, can’t join until after Euro 2020.
