Former Barcelona assistant director: “I couldn’t have been that bad because…”

Former Barcelona assistant manager Eder Sarabia has defended his time at the club, citing the opportunities he has had since then. Sarabia became known for his strict attitude and loud way of expressing himself, something that apparently did not sit well in a locker room full of Barcelona stars.

Sarabia arrived alongside Quique Setién, in a disastrous eight-month period in which Barcelona lost La Liga and suffered the worst defeat in its history in Europe against Bayern Munich.

The now Elche coach, in statements to Relevo, points out that he was later hired by the owner of Andorra, Gerard Piqué, to lead the team.

“On the one hand, people insisted on it going wrong, and then it got bigger, but hey, I can’t have done it that badly or I wouldn’t have been involved when Gerard Piqué was the one who hired me for Andorra and when the representation agency that I have Griezmann’s. I give these two examples. That’s the first thing, and then, the relationship he has had with several footballers and some conversations I had with Leo, for example, which (exhale) were incredible. I say that Leo is not only the best in history at playing football, but also at understanding football.”

Tyrick Mitchell (Crystal Palace), Álvaro Carreras (Benfica) and Hugo Bueno (Feyenoord) are on the radar for the left-back position. Alphonso Davies remains out of reach. Mitchell, whose contract expires in June, is a leading candidate. @sport

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He goes on to explain how much he enjoyed talking to Messi.

“One of those conversations was on the training ground, when the session ended. We had been playing a little game and there was a pressing action, which was a kind of disorganized pressing and in the end they came out and created the opportunity to score. So I took advantage of that play a little to try to involve Leo as well, to help us in these types of situations, to try to help his teammates, organize them…”

“Football conversations, which later I also remember that when I entered the squad locker room they were a little surprised because almost no one had really had a 30-40 minute conversation with Leo (smiles), natural and talking about football and everything.” what he has. “I liked him and because, as I told you, the way he understood things was outrageous.”

Elche de Sarabia currently occupies fourth place in the Second Division and aspires to promotion. He was fired from Andorra earlier this year after three years in charge, in which he managed to take the Principality club to the Second Division and keep it there for the first time.