They say second parts are never good… except ‘The Godfather’
Ernesto Valverde
Despite the abuse and pettiness of his farewell as Barça coach, Ernesto Valverde (60) had responded with an elegant statement.
He wrote:
“These two and a half seasons I have experienced very happy moments celebrating victories and titles, but also other hard and difficult ones”.
The message – four years have passed – was full of thanks, this is how a gentleman leaves.
In a direct way, Valverde applauded the Barça fans, who had never turned their backs on him. However, his addition was generous, even to those who had not wished him such good things: he gave polite congratulations to the board of directors, pusillanimous, and also to the staff, a block composed mostly of exemplars capricious, accommodating and definitely rude.
Those who stood guard at the doors of the club, waiting for the last farewell of the Barcelona coach, explain that they saw a smiling man leave, as relaxed as relieved, with his payment in his pocket, perhaps finally free, since until then , the previous weeks, his last moments as Barça coach, Valverde’s gesture had been panned.
(And rightly so, say those who know about the affair. No one enjoys that position: Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Setién have proclaimed it; now Xavi also says it).
Saturday night at La Cartuja, and also at yesterday’s celebrations in Bilbao, we saw that same Valverde relieved, free of all yoke, a restored man.
It was him and it was his club, this Athletic that today is progressing correctly in LaLiga, but that saw the need for successes that would distinguish it.
The Basques had contested five cup finals during the 21st century. They had all flown to the other side. It was necessary to go back forty years to recover his last triumph.
And even that last victory had not been fully satisfying, but rather murky and unsettling: in technicolor, we witnessed an embarrassing spectacle. After Endika’s goal, we saw Schuster show the Basques the horns and, in the end, Maradona – previously softened by the lions’ tough tackles – and Migueli practicing martial arts in front of Goikoetxea, Urkiaga or Liceranzu.
“I feel calm, because everything is in place when something like this is achieved”, said Valverde in April 2024, back to the present, still in Seville, still in the belly of La Cartuja, hours before hugging his trophy to fly to Bilbao.
The crane will enter the Itsasmuseum dyke today to take the barge and place it twelve kilometers further, in the bay of Abra de Getxo, from where it will depart on Thursday, inland, until reaching the City Council of Bilbao. It is estimated that one million fans will come out to the shores.
Thinking about this parade, Valverde rubs his hands. Never, and not even in his best days as a Barcelona coach (he had signed a League-Cup double in 2018), had he felt so identified with a project. He has nothing to lose here.
