When you’re the fastest gun in town, it’s only understandable that there’ll always be someone out to challenge you. Which is when you either address the situation immediately and get the guns a-blazing to nip the situation in the bud or, if you’re having to deal with someone who’s clearly way not in your league, perhaps take it all with a whole barrel of salt.
Thus was the situation when Barca’s former coach, Quique Setien, took it upon himself to put the Barca talisman and arguably best player in the world, Lionel Messi, in his place last season and it seemed abundantly clear from Messi’s body language that the ex Real Betis coach wasn’t well respected in the Barcelona dressing room.
The Catalan club’s former manager has recently spoken publicly of his difficulties at managing the Argentinian, and a report in Mundo Deportivo, cited by the Daily Mirror, hints at the troubles then.
Apparently, after Messi took Setien to task over his tactics, the Cantabrian exploded at the Argentinian and retorted angrily:
‘If you don’t like what I said, you know where the door is,” Setien said.
Messi, however, instead of retaliating, just laughed in his manager’s face in the dressing room with the rest of the squad present.
Such a comical scenario being played out in front of the whole squad would have cast immediate doubt on Setien’s position.
For all of the plaudits that came Setien’s way for the style of football that he played at Real Betis, evidently the former manager never expected how difficult it would be to earn the respect of a dressing room full of stars that have been there and won it all as he’d never managed players at such a level before and was way out of his comfort zone.
Given the way in which it ended at Barca, it’s a fair bet that it’ll be a while before Setien decides to pursue such a high level appointment again.
Credit: Football Tribe Malaysia
