Herding the pack from green to green \u2013 the enigmatic journey of Queque Setien.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
The football world was momentarily stunned when Enrique Setien Solar<\/span> was recently named as FC Barcelona\u2019s new manager. <\/span>Quien??<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Enrique ‘Quique’ Seti\u00e9n Solar<\/span>, or <\/span>‘Quique’ to those who know of him.<\/span> The Spanish former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder and was later in his career a club manager. Tagged with the nickname\u00a0<\/span>El Maestro<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Quique<\/span> gained some measure of fame for his\u00a0<\/span>Racing de Santander<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>spiels, where he began and ended his 19-year professional career at the club and having amassed a total of\u00a0374 La Liga matches with 58 goals over 15 seasons. Today he is the newly-installed head coach of the legendary La Liga Barcelona Club of Johan Cruyff and Lionel Messi fame.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The next inevitable question would invariably be how did a manager with a relative <\/span>lack of success at the highest levels get to occupy the hot seat vacated by a luminary, his predecessor Ernesto Valverde,<\/span> who had<\/span>\u00a0won two La Liga titles in two years besides navigating the team to the top once again even in this mid season?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Such is the often bewildering nature of professional League football that befuddles the minds of even the most stoic, experienced football professionals from players to managers. After all, Setien\u2019s best La Liga finish was as Real Betis coach in 2018, herding them to sixth place and qualifying for the Europa League, at best.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Setien himself was somewhat non-plussed with his appointment:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I never imagined this [appointment], even in my wildest dreams. Yesterday I was out walking with cows in my village and today I’m coaching the best players in the world!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n