Setién: 'I'd have swapped my entire Barça squad for Flick's in a heartbeat'
Former Barcelona boss Quique Setién offers brutally honest assessment of his time at Camp Nou compared to Hansi Flick's current situation.
Former Barcelona manager Quique Setién has delivered a brutally honest assessment of his ill-fated tenure at the Catalan club, admitting he would have completely replaced the squad he inherited in 2020 with the current crop of players at Hansi Flick’s disposal.
Cup clash insights
Speaking ahead of Barcelona’s Copa del Rey tie against Racing Santander, Setién - who managed both clubs during his career - offered a balanced analysis of what might unfold at El Sardinero:
“The Racing lads have quality players with high motivation. Plus, Barça are suffering a bit defensively. Every opponent ends up creating some goal-scoring chances against them,” he noted in an interview with ‘Tot Costa’.
Current Barça: Talented but unbalanced
Despite the obvious improvements under Flick, Setién believes Barcelona remain a work in progress:
- Too many inexperienced young players lacking game management
- Still searching for proper balance between attack and defence
- Needs time to recover their European standing
The painful comparison
The most revealing part of the interview came when Setién compared the squad he inherited to Flick’s current roster:
“Flick has a squad you can actually work with, completely different from what I had,” Setién admitted with remarkable candour. “The entire environment is different now - just look at the excited faces of the players.”
In perhaps the most telling statement about his doomed spell at Camp Nou, Setién confessed: “I would have changed the entire team, without exception.”
Madrid confusion
Interestingly, Setién also expressed bewilderment about Real Madrid’s managerial situation, apparently believing Xabi Alonso had been sacked by Los Blancos - a curious error given Alonso has never managed Madrid and is currently thriving at Bayer Leverkusen.
“I don’t understand why they’ve sacked him,” said Setién, in what appears to be a complete misunderstanding of the current coaching landscape.
For Barcelona fans, the interview offers a stark reminder of how far the club has come since those dark days under Setién’s brief reign. Flick’s boys might be a diamond in the rough, but at least there’s some proper Bobby Moore to work with now.