They usually say that second parts are never good... except 'The Godfather'
Ernesto Valverde
------------------------------
Despite the mistreatment and shame of his dismissal as Barça coach, Ernesto Valverde (60) had responded with an elegant statement.
Wrote:
“In 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 already passed – was filled with gratitude, this is how a gentleman leaves.
In a direct way, Valverde applauded the Barça fans, those who had never turned their backs on him. However, his tagline was generous, it was even with those who had not wished him so much well: he gave polite congratulations to the faint-hearted board of directors, and also to the staff, a block composed mostly of capricious, well-off and definitely rude
Those who were standing guard at the doors of the club, waiting for the Barça coach's final goodbye, say that they saw a smiling man leave, as relaxed as he was relieved, with his settlement in his pocket, perhaps free at last, because until then, in the weeks Previously, in his last days as Barça coach, Valverde's gesture had become dull.
(And rightly so, says someone who knows about the matter. Nobody enjoys that position: Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Setién have proclaimed it; now Xavi also says it).
On Saturday night in La Cartuja, and also in yesterday's celebrations in Bilbao, we distinguished that same Valverde relieved, free from yoke, a restored man.
He was and his club was, this Athletic that today is advancing correctly in LaLiga but saw itself in need of successes that would distinguish it.
The Basques had played five cup finals in this 21st century. They had all flown to the other side. It was necessary to go back forty years to recover his last triumph.
And not even that last hug had been fully satisfactory, but rather murky and unsettling: in Technicolor, we witnessed a shameful spectacle. After Endika's goal, we see Schuster showing his horns to the Basques and, in the finale, Maradona – previously crushed by the very tough attacks of the lions – and Migueli practicing martial arts against Goikoetxea, Urkiaga or Liceranzu.
“I feel calm, like everything is in its place when you achieve one of these things,” Valverde said in April 2024, back in the present, still in Seville, still in the belly of La Cartuja, hours before hugging each other. to his trophy to fly to Bilbao.
The crane will enter the Itsasmuseum dock this Monday to lift the Gabarra and deposit it twelve kilometers further away, in the Abra de Getxo bay, from where it will depart on Thursday, in the river, until it reaches the Bilbao town hall. It is estimated that a million fans will flock to the shores.
Thinking about that parade, Valverde rubs his hands.
Never, and not even in his best days as a Barça coach (he had signed a League-Cup double in 2018), had he felt so identified with a project. Here he has nothing to lose.
