No termination clause at the end of 2019-20

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has confirmed there is no termination clause for the end of this season in new head coach Quique Setien's deal.

Setien penned a two-and-a-half-year contract this week to replace Ernesto Valverde in the Camp Nou hot seat. Speaking to Sport, Bartomeu confirmed there was a clause in the 61-year-old's contract that relates to Barca's next presidential elections in 2021, but no mechanism to release Setien if the remainder of this campaign does not go as planned.

"No, he has a contract for two-and-a-half years and can be released in 2021," he said. "Quique Setien has signed for two-and-a-half seasons and I have already explained that there are elections in 2021 and [at that time] there will be a clause there according to which, if the new president wants to change the coach, he can change Quique Setien's contract. But he has signed for two-and-a-half seasons."

As he did at the new coach's welcome news conference on Tuesday, Bartomeu offered a ringing endorsement of Setien's playing style.

"Quique Setien is a coach who has a clear philosophy of the game and a clear concept of football," he said.

 

January 15, 2020

"He has demonstrated for years in the teams he has trained that he likes the good game, especially he likes the game that we [at Barcelona] like to watch, and that's why he has been chosen." 

Someone who looks to have already been chosen by Setien himself is 20-year-old midfielder Riqui Puig, who was left out of the Barca B squad to face Badalona on Wednesday. Puig made a pair of LaLiga starts towards the end of last season and is in contention alongside fellow La Masia graduates Ansu Fati and Carles Perez for Sunday's top-flight match against Granada.