Barcelona see season go up in flames after Copa del Rey loss

Barcelona’s season bottomed out with loss to Valencia leaving the future of many up in the air.

What now for Barcelona? Where do they go from here?

Those were a few of the questions being asked after the blaugrana dropped the Copa del Rey final to a much better Valencia side. But the biggest question of all once again centered on the future of the manager, Ernesto Valverde.

His future was put in doubt after the Liverpool fiasco and then all but secured in comments made by Bartomeu, the Barcelona president, days before the cup final. Having lost said cup final to Valencia, everyone’s future, not just Valverde’s, is up in the air. Apart from Lionel Messi, no one at the club is seen as untouchable.

In a span of a few weeks, going from a potential treble to only one trophy and in the manner in which they were lost, means changes must be made. Based on his comments after the game, Bartomeu knows it as well.

According to Mundo Deportivo, he said, “Every year players come to this club. De Jong has been confirmed and the technical secretary will work on other incorporations and exits as well. But that’s a habit every summer.”

However, his faith in Ernesto Valverde remains steadfast despite the loss.

In that same article, he states, “He has a contract. He is the Barcelona manager and today’s loss has not been Valverde’s fault. Goals are what count and today Valencia has scored one more than us.”

For his part, despite many calling for him to resign, Ernesto Valverde remains adamant that he wants to continue. According to Sport, he refusd to say anything when asked if he had no credit left and thanked the reporter for “their condolences.”

The fact of the matter is that something has to change. It’s been repeated and written ad nauseam that a manger cannot survive after two humiliating Champions League exits and now a poor performance in the cup final. Valverde clearly has not learned anything from these losses and seems to get out-managed by any side who isn’t demonstrably weaker than his Barcelona side.

It was evident from the performance that much of the old guard and those Valverde has confidence in are no longer up to snuff and need to see their roles reduced or moved on from the club. Under his guidance, players like Carles Aleña have not been given enough playing time and the club’s “Messi-dependencia” has hit a breaking point. If it wasn’t for the Argentine, this team would be nowhere. We’ve seen how badly the team looks when he’s not on the field and Valverde has not been able to figure out how to get the best out of the team without him.

With Frenkie de Jong coming next season and the team needing to get younger, Ernesto Valverde is not the right manager to lead this next generation of young talent. One could argue that players like Coutinho have let him down but his insistence on giving him chance after chance with little to no improvement instead of opting for others ultimately falls on him. Winning the league is always important but for a team like Barcelona but it’s not enough. A team like Barcelona need to compete in every competition they are in. Against Roma, Liverpool, and now Valencia, aside from Messi, the team did not compete at all.