Graham Hunter: "Quique Setien is an attractive
coach with a [Johan] Cruyff mentality but he is
fourth choice, at best. It has been a risible
Keystone Cops affair from start to finish."

Quique Setien was unveiled as new head coach of
Barcelona of Tuesday Quique Setien was "fourth choice, at best" in
Barcelona's hunt for a new head coach, according
to Spanish football expert Graham Hunter. Setien signed a two-and-a-half-year deal with the Catalan club on Monday after Ernesto Valverde was sacked by the La Liga leaders.

The former Real Betis head coach admitted he was
surprised to be offered the role, which he described as beyond his "wildest dreams", and Hunter believes he was only approached after Barcelona
had failed to convince three other candidates to
replace Valverde. Speaking to the Transfer Talk podcast, Hunter said: "They went out to Qatar to try and persuade
Xavi, who they should have known wouldn't come,
couldn't come. Ernesto Valverde was sacked by Barcelona despite Ernesto Valverde was sacked by Barcelona despite
winning consecutive La Liga titles at the Nou Camp "They tried to persuade Ronald Koeman, who had
already told them previously he wouldn't join them.
He thinks he'll coach the Netherlands to the
European Championship and victory this summer. "They sussed out what Mauricio Pochettino had
previously said, that he'd rather go back and work
on his farm in Argentina than go and coach
Barcelona, they tried to persuade him. "Quique Setien is an attractive coach with a [Johan]
Cruyff mentality but he is fourth choice, at best. It
has been a risible Keystone Cops affair from start to
finish."

Spanish football expert Terry Gibson says new
Barcelona head coach Quique Setien's style of
football will suit the club, but admits the
appointment is a 'gutsy call' 'Xavi mission was doomed for failure' Hunter believes Xavi could eventually return to
Barcelona as head coach after the club's
presidential election next year. He said: "Xavi is very aligned to a presidential
candidate who wants to take over the club when
there are elections in 2021. His name is Victor Font. "They work together, they are a team. It is
anticipated that is when Xavi will come back. Xavi was reportedly approached by Barcelona to Xavi was reportedly approached by Barcelona to
replace Valverde "This president, [Josep Maria] Bartomeu, went to
Xavi to kind of say 'Drop that, forget your friend,
forget all your allegiances'. "He also went to Xavi and said 'Come now, forget
the fact your Qatari team has got a cup final to play
this Friday'. Something that he's qualified them for.
He's been pretty successful in his first season in
coaching in Qatar. "It is no secret he's paid gigantic sums to be there.
The idea of persuading him to abandon his club, to
abandon the huge contract he's got and to
abandon his friend Victor Font, who wants to take
over in 2021. "This was a mission that I think was absolutely
doomed for failure." 'Setien is an evangelistic disciple of Johan
Cruyff' Setien was formally unveiled as Barcelona head
coach on Tuesday and Hunter believes he will look
to implement a style of play based on the legendary Cruyff side that won four consecutive La Liga titles
between 1991 and 1994. "When he was a midfielder he was playing against
Johan Cruyff's dream team at Barcelona," said
Hunter. "He said he learned his football from having to
chase players like Pep Guardiola and Txiki
Begiristain around the pitch. He hated that. Spanish football expert Graham Hunter says Setien Spanish football expert Graham Hunter says Setien
believes in 'beautiful flowing football' "He studied Cruyff's football and came to
prominence a couple of clubs ago when he was Las
Palmas coach and then Real Betis coach. "Under Quique Setien, Real Betis went to Real
Madrid and beat them twice in a row, they hadn't
done that for many decades. "They also won 4-3 at Camp Nou. He is the last
coach domestically to go to Camp Nou and beat
Barcelona. That was in November 2018. He is a guy
who believes in beautiful flowing football.
Quique Setien took Barcelona training for the first
time on Tuesday morning, before he was officially
unveiled as head coach "He is absolutely, having never played with Cruyff
and having told Cruyff he would cut off one of his
fingers just to have worked for him, a complete
evangelistic disciple of Johan Cruyff's idea about
keeping the ball, making the opponent run,
spreading the pitch, pressing hard, playing positional. "When he's in charge of a group that understands
him, the football that you get is genuinely beautiful.
It is a really exciting idea."