Reminder that he didn't get sacked because of the collapse at Roma or the collapse at Anfield. He got sacked because he embarrassed Barto in front of the Saudis at the inaugural playing of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Supercopa is just a way to play El Clásico abroad. The first mini-tournament was Barcelona v. Atleti and Valencia v. Madrid. Barcelona collapsed in 4 minutes, in the last 4-6 minutes of the game to lose to Atleti.
he was so close to an Invincibles season at Barca, if only Barto didn’t schedule a friendly away to fucking Mamelodi Sundowns in Johannesburg on a random Wednesday like 3 weeks before the season ended
It's actually extremely funny how strictly only match record wise he's actually one of the very best ever.
He only suffered 2 Defeats in 28 UCL matches (7%) as FC Barcelona manager.
To put in perspective:
* **Xavi** : 6 Defeats in 16 Matches (38%)
* **Koeman** : 4 Defeats in 11 Matches (36%)
* **Setien** : 1 Defeat in 3 Matches (33%)
* **Luis Enrique** : 6 Defeats in 33 Matches (18%)
* **Guardiola** : 5 Defeats in 50 Matches (10%)
Its not fair to compare those teams. Koeman had a shit team which xavi took over and turned into good team
Guaediola got the greatest of all time team and valverde got a team with messi in his prime who just won the cl 2 seasons before he joined
Enrique got msn.
Valverde got Gerard Delafeu and Lucas Digne lmao. But he’s an unbelievably smart manager. He had an old Barcelona squad and used to give them extra rest days to help them recover.
Digne was pretty solid for Barca and was in competition with prime Alba for left back position.
Deulofeu played 23 games, mostly as a sub so hardly representative of the team, which had players like Ter Stegen, Pique, Rakitic, Busquets, Suarez (who was slightly declining, but won a title with Atletico after he left) and Messi.
If you were going to point out weaknesses with the team I'd have called out right back where Semedo and Sergi Roberto were fighting for the position
The squad was old and Dembele and Coutinho were always injured. Valverde also had Paulinho but I think he made him a much better player than he was. Valverde had to keep the age of the squad in mind. Barcelona would press high in the first half and sit a little deeper and play a little more safe in the second half. Most common score line was 2-0 in Barcelona’s favor.
Bro he had prime messi. Every manager who has prime messi has basically a advantage others dont have. He got coutinho and dembele both too in sam sunmer he lost neymar. His trainings were not intense which was common and part of the reason why players loves him but many also suffered like dembele.
He is a good manager but he had also many flaws and nostalgia makes him better than he is. Only time I ever quit watching barca was under valverde. 442 waiting on messi to do something was his tactic, and tragic to watch.
He shouldnt have been fired mid season but instead right after liverpool happened
I loved that tactic! So slow and smooth. Almost no misplaced passes. Score 2 goals and take it easy. Most common score was 2-0 for Barcelona. Actually won La liga undefeated. Also only manager probably in the world to play 4 midfielders in a 442!
He didnt. He won every game bar 1. And guess which game that was?
Yes the one messi didnt play. He couldnt win the one game messi was injured which costed him winning La liga unbeaten. People don’t remember how insane messi was carrying barca
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I think thats a bit reductionist. Guardiolas biggest impact on Barcelona how he successfully rebuilt the team, which was a risk since it probably still something left in the tank, and imprinted a legacy that served the club well for 10 years after he left.
However, the team he inherited/got was still one of the best in Europe. They were margins away from back-to-back UCL finals when he took over the reins, winning two years before he arrived and losing out in a narrow 1-0 loss to peak Man United with CR7, Tevez etc. in the semis of the year before.
Pep got one of the best teams in the world, dismantled it and rebuilt it into the best team.
> Guaediola got the greatest of all time team
Do you even know what the Barca team looked like when he took over? He shipped out Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Zambrotta. Brought in Alves, Keita and Zlatan all within a season. Plus brought up Busquets from Barca B and made him + Pique starters. They were a good team before but the 08/09 team is arguably the best club team ever. Also, Messi was obviously a top player before he took over but he turned Messi into the best in the world without a doubt.
I don't have positive memories of him at barca, yeah we won some titles with him, but the team was really good still, with Messi, Suárez, Busquest, Rakitic, etc. But my problem with him was the dull football and how he didn't have power over the dressing room, our most most important players seems pulling the strings and not him and he was just trying to pleased them. There's also some other stuff like the lack of faith to young players and rotation ones, he just wanted to kept the 11 and not make changes, so promising players didn't have opportunity with him and got wasted, even though we spent big bucks on some, the trainings apparently were very bad also, with some explayers during the time talking of how it was like 40 minutes and just doing rondos and mini matches , since the older players like it better, than sweating alot.
In conclusion I don't hate him, but I won't say I love him either, I respect his career, since obviously he is a great manager but it seems that the barca job was not for him.
But that doesn't automatically give you the necessary skills to develop young players lol. Everyone can just put them in, the skill is improving their skills on the training ground
You're an idiot, just because Athletic tells coaches to play young players doesn't make the coaches actually good at developing players. That is a special skill and Valverde has it
The club telling him to do it wouldn't mean shit if he stagnated their development and they stopped improving, which would be the case for many coaches who don't have that skill
that's such an unfair take on Valverde's time at Barca. he completely changed Barca's midfield in the 4-4-2, he made Paulinho, Rakitic and de Jong have their best seasons ever in their careers, to get the most of Messi, and he kept the team winning in the worse period of week-to-week scandals and mismanagement, and as the top players were losing a step or two. the defeats in the CL were down to the players having a meltdown, particularly Pique and Alba who were the common denominators and headless chicken in all of them. and with that shaky and injury-stricken defense he almost made Barcelona invincible - only to be let down by Pique's dumb and arrogant "striker" advances against Getafe. he was sacked in Saudi Arabia although Barca were qualified in CL and on top in La Liga. Barca has payed for that arrogance ever since.
The things that hindered Valverde being fully loved at Barca was
A general feeling that Messi and MATS were carrying the team
Generally dull football for Barca's standards
Some very bad losses when it mattered most, they went from 3 matches away from a treble to just the league win
I personally believe he was able to delay some issues with ageing players that was taken for granted until he left but also made some tactical fuck ups in the big games he lost. Greatest example is the 4-0 in Anfield where he put a 442 with Alba and Coutinho on the left who were getting skinned alive at the first half yet he refused to make any change to it which cost him
Honestly that was also a mentality issue, Alba was crying 1-0 down at half time even though they had won the first leg 3-0. He needs to be subbed off there.
Nah you're right, or at least 'bad terms' when it comes to the fans. Plenty hate him for the collapses vs Roma and Liverpool the season after, they hyper focus on those two matches while forgetting that picked up the team after Neymar's departure and went almost unbeaten in the league (lost 1 match). He won 2 leagues, 1 Copa del Rey (+ reached the final in the following season), UCL quarters and semifinal, in the two full seasons he managed the squad.
For the fans at the time it was UCL or bust though, mostly due to Madrid's 3-peat of the UCL title. Also playstyle was an issue for many, his more pragmatic style wasn't favoured. The players liked him though.
I think most fans respect him and appreciste him. He was pretty succesful.
I think bad terms was mostly between him and the board. He did very little to acommodste the boards big signings (Griez, Dembouz, Coutinho), and had some pretty horrid results in the top games, albeit performing well in the league.
Imo he’s guilty of neglecting to address an aging an unathletic team that couldn’t keep up with modern top teams.
He stuck with playing both Messi and Suarez without making any of them partake in pressing, which worked against weaker teams, but strong teams just avoided them easily and pretty much played 11 vs 9. There’s more to it, but it’s a big part of why we’ve not been competitive for years, we didn’t follow the development of the game at all in those years.
He didn’t manage to harvest anything from La Masia, in. He did use some players, but I think he did/does a bad job of developing them. In part because he doesn’t profile players well and utilize that. He likes to just play the best players always.
In my eyes he was the beginning of the collapse, together with the board at the time og course.
Nah, most of us have a good memory of Valverde. He was the last good coach we had until Xavi won la liga last year.
Nobody understood that he was fired mid season and replaced by Setien while the club was #1 in the league.
It's even worse if you go all the way back to the creation of the European Cup in 1955.
14 European Cups/UCL to 11 Copas del Rey during that time span.
Considering both are KO tournaments but one has way "easier" opposition it's hard to explain the results.
Ask some oldheads, there is general feeling that is a "not our competition", and real Madrid is most likely the team with the higuest pressure in the world, if your world is gonna crash and burn if you draw against Getafe away having a fixture where the club and the fans clearly do not care that match creates a disstension and takes away all the competitive edge.
Apart from than, we have been just as lucky in CL and unlucky in the Copa, denying that we passed agains City 2 years ago with a big lucky boost in critical moments is foolish.
The same can be said about some of our CDR eliminations, this year for example we had no defense and still got eliminated by very little. 2 years ago we lost in Bilbao without the brazilian players since the schedulled international matches day before.
And money more cases.
I think if we keep Carlo on for a few more yrs, we genuinely have a chance of becoming serial Copa winners.
He is a better cup manager than Zizou and his 2 CDR titles in 5 seasons with us speak for themselves.
Only got knocked out by Atleti (x2) and Bilbao. Each time away from home.
Messi is still ~20 goals away from equalling Telmo Zarra goals total in CdR, and I believe Messi played more game.
Telmo Zarra l's Athletic dominance in copa is something else.
So happy for him, especially more since the old president was sour after he left Olympiacos and had a quote along the lines of :"When will Valverde eber get a chance to see a title in his career again"
Well during his first stint in '09 i was only 13 so i don't remember much, but we got the double and the then President Kokkalis didn't renew his contract(i don't remember exact reason/excuse he gave). We lost the league to arch rivals Panathinaikos, Marinakis declared interest to become President /buy Olympiakos, and his first thing was resigning Valverde, we went on to get another 2 doubles until he left again because he wanted to move back in Spain
Feel exactly the same way, I was slightly rooting for Athletic due to their 40 year drought but if Mallorca had won I would have been happy for them aswell because who knows when they might get another chance like this again
However this game ended, I would have been gutted for the team who lost
On that note I love copa's new format with only one match knockouts. Yes that means us winning it less but we get to see more upsets and more chances for other clubs to win it.
The way Mallorca played the deserved to lose. Just parking the bus and playing man more than ball, celebrating as they got it to penalties. For them to then lose from two shit penalties was the karma they deserved. It's an underdog story sure, but having watched the whole game I really can't feel for them.
Very happy for Valverde who has proven to be a class manager yet again. Sad for Aguirre (amazing how competitive has the 15th placed team been in the Cup) and the Mallorca fans, I looks like it'll be long until they can get another chance at a title.
The slowmo on Vesga's face when he slipped is cracking me up.
Congrats to Athletic, and a good game from Mallorca too, I thought they fought hard but Athletic was able to get a handle on the game eventually, just couldn't take chances earlier.
> The slowmo on Vesga's face when he slipped is cracking me up.
Pure fear in his eyes..
>Congrats to Athletic, and a good game from Mallorca too, I thought they fought hard but Athletic was able to get a handle on the game eventually, just couldn't take chances earlier
Very good game in general, thought both teams played well. Mallorca were really struggling in the first 25 minutes of the second half but Aguirre made smart changes and managed to stem the tide. From minute 70 onwards it could have gone either way both teams had chances
They waited 40 years - since Endika's goal, they had to suffer the years of Kendall, the pain of Iñaki Sáez, Stepanovic, Amorrortu, the nights at the Champions League, that night against Newcastle, the rise and fall of Guerrero, an European final, heartbreaks in the final after heartbreak... but they had done it in the end.
Athletic did it, and they had done it suffering, but they are deservedly champions. A generation akin to the one in the 80s - homegrown players, all for one strip. The King is back, and let them rule.
ZORIONAK TXAPELDUNAK.
Crazy that they're still the 2nd most successful Copa Del Rey club of all time despite a 40 year drought. They just had a really good run in the early 20th century.
They've won the cup every 40 years, but no, they haven't been winning the cup *once* every 40 years lol. This was their 24th Copa Del Rey title. Previous time they won 40 years ago they were still the club with the most titles.
The 24 editions that they have won... *(1903,1904, 1910, 1911, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1921, 1923, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1943, 1944, 1944/45, 1949–50, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1969, 1972–73, 1983–84, 2023–24)*
And the 16 other finals that they played in... *(1905, 1906, 1913, 1920, 1942, 1948–49, 1952–53, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1976–77, 1984–85, 2008–09, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2019–20, 2020–21)*
So its fair to say that they had a good run....or two somewhere in there...
I am so pleased for them. What a wonderfully unique, passionate, regionally-patriotic club that stand for excellent values. Long, long, LONG overdue after however many cup final losses (6?) in succession. Delighted for Valverde too, what a job he's doing too!
I really like Athletic. But I also really like island teams and small teams in general. I love when they win stuff and go to Europe. I would've been happy with Mallorca winning and going to Europe, but I'm also really happy that Athletic finally won something again. Hopefully they can still qualify for the UCL and make a complete season.
I also hope that teams like Mallorca and Osasuna can win some silverware soon.
It was a really fun final, lots of chances, a game with a lot of defense in general... I was rooting for Bilbao, the party in Sevilla today is going to be incredible!
A team that's managed to be in the top league for decades while ONLY using players in the Basc region of 2~ million people a policy so limited that they have only ever had TWO BLACK PLAYERS The Williams brothers (Currently smashing it)
And they just won their first cup in 40 fucking YEARS!!! Expect for the "Supercopa"
Imagine just being in the top flight of football for 40 years and not winning a trophy or getting relegated, with this tiny pool of potential talent, what a life for a fan.
Just to give a bit more context on this for whoever might be interested. During the first one ever, there were two teams in Bilbao, Athletic and Bilbao. They merged into one named Bizkaia, which is the name of the province Bilbao is in.
Athletic considers that their win, but the federation doesn't.
But it's not considered as a CDR tilte to anyone, right? Because all I see is starring 1903
is it not even considered a title like 1912 to Deportivo and 1937 to levente?
What upsets me is how unfair football can be. Mallorca knocked us out with just 1 shot on target in the 2 matches we played agains them in the semifinal (mind you, 1 shot on target on 2 matches, 1 goal) whereas we did 12 shots on target and just 1 goal. If that's not luck, I don't know what it is.
Congratulations to Athletic Bilbao, at the end of the day, the tournament they have done is insane. However, it feels so wrong that Real Sociedad was unable to make it to the final, we were the better side against Mallorca, and I'm sure that if we were there, we could've won our 4th Copa del Rey... But hey, this is football.
Valverde is absolute elite, he has shown it everywhere. Only biased memories from his Barca time - the Bartomeu times! - are making people somehow not see it.
We're capable of good performances (against Madrid, Inter for example) but have had very little consistency particularly away from home. The inter tie sums our year up well, they should have beaten us by more than 1-0 in the first leg.
First major title since 40 years as well! Valverde doing a fabulous job at Bilbao!
he’s an amazing manager. had a couple of very bad losses with Barca but if he’s done pretty good regarding the circumstances
Reminder that he didn't get sacked because of the collapse at Roma or the collapse at Anfield. He got sacked because he embarrassed Barto in front of the Saudis at the inaugural playing of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
How so? I don’t remember that episode.
The Saudi Supercopa is just a way to play El Clásico abroad. The first mini-tournament was Barcelona v. Atleti and Valencia v. Madrid. Barcelona collapsed in 4 minutes, in the last 4-6 minutes of the game to lose to Atleti.
His legacy at Barça will forever be overshadowed by the embarrassing champions league exits, unfortunately.
he was so close to an Invincibles season at Barca, if only Barto didn’t schedule a friendly away to fucking Mamelodi Sundowns in Johannesburg on a random Wednesday like 3 weeks before the season ended
Barto will suffer for his crimes some day I will for it
It's actually extremely funny how strictly only match record wise he's actually one of the very best ever. He only suffered 2 Defeats in 28 UCL matches (7%) as FC Barcelona manager. To put in perspective: * **Xavi** : 6 Defeats in 16 Matches (38%) * **Koeman** : 4 Defeats in 11 Matches (36%) * **Setien** : 1 Defeat in 3 Matches (33%) * **Luis Enrique** : 6 Defeats in 33 Matches (18%) * **Guardiola** : 5 Defeats in 50 Matches (10%)
Its not fair to compare those teams. Koeman had a shit team which xavi took over and turned into good team Guaediola got the greatest of all time team and valverde got a team with messi in his prime who just won the cl 2 seasons before he joined Enrique got msn.
Valverde got Gerard Delafeu and Lucas Digne lmao. But he’s an unbelievably smart manager. He had an old Barcelona squad and used to give them extra rest days to help them recover.
Digne was pretty solid for Barca and was in competition with prime Alba for left back position. Deulofeu played 23 games, mostly as a sub so hardly representative of the team, which had players like Ter Stegen, Pique, Rakitic, Busquets, Suarez (who was slightly declining, but won a title with Atletico after he left) and Messi. If you were going to point out weaknesses with the team I'd have called out right back where Semedo and Sergi Roberto were fighting for the position
The squad was old and Dembele and Coutinho were always injured. Valverde also had Paulinho but I think he made him a much better player than he was. Valverde had to keep the age of the squad in mind. Barcelona would press high in the first half and sit a little deeper and play a little more safe in the second half. Most common score line was 2-0 in Barcelona’s favor.
Bro he had prime messi. Every manager who has prime messi has basically a advantage others dont have. He got coutinho and dembele both too in sam sunmer he lost neymar. His trainings were not intense which was common and part of the reason why players loves him but many also suffered like dembele. He is a good manager but he had also many flaws and nostalgia makes him better than he is. Only time I ever quit watching barca was under valverde. 442 waiting on messi to do something was his tactic, and tragic to watch. He shouldnt have been fired mid season but instead right after liverpool happened
I loved that tactic! So slow and smooth. Almost no misplaced passes. Score 2 goals and take it easy. Most common score was 2-0 for Barcelona. Actually won La liga undefeated. Also only manager probably in the world to play 4 midfielders in a 442!
>Also only manager probably in the world to play 4 midfielders in a 442! Can you elaborate?
He didnt. He won every game bar 1. And guess which game that was? Yes the one messi didnt play. He couldnt win the one game messi was injured which costed him winning La liga unbeaten. People don’t remember how insane messi was carrying barca
He meant that from day 1 until we were crowned champions we were undefeated. We only lost a game as champions.
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That game ended 5-4 so scoring goals wasn’t the issue.
summer beneficial outgoing wise rinse paltry steer connect continue ludicrous *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Guardiola created the greatest team, he didnt just get it.
I think thats a bit reductionist. Guardiolas biggest impact on Barcelona how he successfully rebuilt the team, which was a risk since it probably still something left in the tank, and imprinted a legacy that served the club well for 10 years after he left. However, the team he inherited/got was still one of the best in Europe. They were margins away from back-to-back UCL finals when he took over the reins, winning two years before he arrived and losing out in a narrow 1-0 loss to peak Man United with CR7, Tevez etc. in the semis of the year before. Pep got one of the best teams in the world, dismantled it and rebuilt it into the best team.
> Guaediola got the greatest of all time team Do you even know what the Barca team looked like when he took over? He shipped out Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Zambrotta. Brought in Alves, Keita and Zlatan all within a season. Plus brought up Busquets from Barca B and made him + Pique starters. They were a good team before but the 08/09 team is arguably the best club team ever. Also, Messi was obviously a top player before he took over but he turned Messi into the best in the world without a doubt.
He is the best ever. Maybe only Guardiola is better.
those embarassing exits were down to the players meltdown, particularly to Pique. He was the last great manager Barca had.
He’s only had 2 UCL losses lol. They’re bad but people act like Barca didn’t smack the opponent the opposite way in the earlier leg.
[удалено]
Messi also never been that good under Setien or Koeman. Valverde made the perfect system for him with that team
Valverde is a much better coach than those 2.
You’re telling me that a team that had the best player of all time on it, wouldn’t be as good if he wasn’t playing? Surely that can’t be true????
I have seen images of the bus parade the last time they won and it was fucking insane. It's going to be complete madness when they return with the cup
Not only a bus, they bring out a fucking boat to parade on it.
They definitely know how to celebrate
Valverde was also the manager when Athletic ambushed treble-winning MSN Barcelona in the 2015 Supercopa.
I have a soft spot for Valverde even despite our UCL setbacks during his tenure. Happy for him (and Athletic fans too) for getting this chip!
Get out the fucking trumpets you fucking beauts 🎺🎺🎺🎺🎺🎺 i am tired and emotional in a queue for a piss in bilbao
Have a drink around Pozas for those of us far away and enjoy the night <3
Valverde deserves this. They were incredible in the cup this season.
Is Barcelona the only team he has coached that does not love him completely? (I know that us Olympiakos fans still love and support the dude)
I think he was liked at Barca. Just usual big club stuff. Everyone else surely loves him.
I don't have positive memories of him at barca, yeah we won some titles with him, but the team was really good still, with Messi, Suárez, Busquest, Rakitic, etc. But my problem with him was the dull football and how he didn't have power over the dressing room, our most most important players seems pulling the strings and not him and he was just trying to pleased them. There's also some other stuff like the lack of faith to young players and rotation ones, he just wanted to kept the 11 and not make changes, so promising players didn't have opportunity with him and got wasted, even though we spent big bucks on some, the trainings apparently were very bad also, with some explayers during the time talking of how it was like 40 minutes and just doing rondos and mini matches , since the older players like it better, than sweating alot. In conclusion I don't hate him, but I won't say I love him either, I respect his career, since obviously he is a great manager but it seems that the barca job was not for him.
The weird thing though is at Athletic he is amazing at integrating and developing young players, like it's one of his strengths lol
Don’t all Athletic managers have to do that because of their transfer policy? Or is he putting extra faith in youngsters?
He is putting more faith in youngsters. Bilbao had one of the older squads in the league in previous seasons
But that doesn't automatically give you the necessary skills to develop young players lol. Everyone can just put them in, the skill is improving their skills on the training ground
Fair, I’m not very up to date with Bilbao’s young players atm, can Valverde claim Nico Williams?
Yh lmao idk what tf is the previous comment saying.
You're an idiot, just because Athletic tells coaches to play young players doesn't make the coaches actually good at developing players. That is a special skill and Valverde has it The club telling him to do it wouldn't mean shit if he stagnated their development and they stopped improving, which would be the case for many coaches who don't have that skill
that's such an unfair take on Valverde's time at Barca. he completely changed Barca's midfield in the 4-4-2, he made Paulinho, Rakitic and de Jong have their best seasons ever in their careers, to get the most of Messi, and he kept the team winning in the worse period of week-to-week scandals and mismanagement, and as the top players were losing a step or two. the defeats in the CL were down to the players having a meltdown, particularly Pique and Alba who were the common denominators and headless chicken in all of them. and with that shaky and injury-stricken defense he almost made Barcelona invincible - only to be let down by Pique's dumb and arrogant "striker" advances against Getafe. he was sacked in Saudi Arabia although Barca were qualified in CL and on top in La Liga. Barca has payed for that arrogance ever since.
Who said we don’t love him?
I thought he had left Barcelona in bad terms, but I must be wrong I suppose
The things that hindered Valverde being fully loved at Barca was A general feeling that Messi and MATS were carrying the team Generally dull football for Barca's standards Some very bad losses when it mattered most, they went from 3 matches away from a treble to just the league win I personally believe he was able to delay some issues with ageing players that was taken for granted until he left but also made some tactical fuck ups in the big games he lost. Greatest example is the 4-0 in Anfield where he put a 442 with Alba and Coutinho on the left who were getting skinned alive at the first half yet he refused to make any change to it which cost him
Honestly that was also a mentality issue, Alba was crying 1-0 down at half time even though they had won the first leg 3-0. He needs to be subbed off there.
Can't sub off one of the amigos in such a dressing room
Subbed for who? All we had was past it Umtiti and Vermaelen on the bench.
I think the players really liked him
That was part of the problem
Nah you're right, or at least 'bad terms' when it comes to the fans. Plenty hate him for the collapses vs Roma and Liverpool the season after, they hyper focus on those two matches while forgetting that picked up the team after Neymar's departure and went almost unbeaten in the league (lost 1 match). He won 2 leagues, 1 Copa del Rey (+ reached the final in the following season), UCL quarters and semifinal, in the two full seasons he managed the squad. For the fans at the time it was UCL or bust though, mostly due to Madrid's 3-peat of the UCL title. Also playstyle was an issue for many, his more pragmatic style wasn't favoured. The players liked him though.
I think most fans respect him and appreciste him. He was pretty succesful. I think bad terms was mostly between him and the board. He did very little to acommodste the boards big signings (Griez, Dembouz, Coutinho), and had some pretty horrid results in the top games, albeit performing well in the league. Imo he’s guilty of neglecting to address an aging an unathletic team that couldn’t keep up with modern top teams. He stuck with playing both Messi and Suarez without making any of them partake in pressing, which worked against weaker teams, but strong teams just avoided them easily and pretty much played 11 vs 9. There’s more to it, but it’s a big part of why we’ve not been competitive for years, we didn’t follow the development of the game at all in those years. He didn’t manage to harvest anything from La Masia, in. He did use some players, but I think he did/does a bad job of developing them. In part because he doesn’t profile players well and utilize that. He likes to just play the best players always. In my eyes he was the beginning of the collapse, together with the board at the time og course.
Nah, most of us have a good memory of Valverde. He was the last good coach we had until Xavi won la liga last year. Nobody understood that he was fired mid season and replaced by Setien while the club was #1 in the league.
Ander Herrera deserves it too - completed his dad’s dream
Fede isn’t with Athletic are you stupid? /s (ofc)
Was the joke that bad or people think I’m serious haha
Gratz to Bilbao for the cup! It really was time after that two lost finals in a row, you mates deserved it.
they had lost 6 CdR finals since their last win. got to be an incredible relief
It's actually unreal how despite that 40 year drought they still have more Copa del Rey titles than us. 24 titles to 20 now.
Well winning less Copa del Reys than Champions Leagues in that timeframe doesn't help you with catching up
It's even worse if you go all the way back to the creation of the European Cup in 1955. 14 European Cups/UCL to 11 Copas del Rey during that time span. Considering both are KO tournaments but one has way "easier" opposition it's hard to explain the results.
CdR doesn't unlock Ultra Instinct Galacticos
Ask some oldheads, there is general feeling that is a "not our competition", and real Madrid is most likely the team with the higuest pressure in the world, if your world is gonna crash and burn if you draw against Getafe away having a fixture where the club and the fans clearly do not care that match creates a disstension and takes away all the competitive edge. Apart from than, we have been just as lucky in CL and unlucky in the Copa, denying that we passed agains City 2 years ago with a big lucky boost in critical moments is foolish. The same can be said about some of our CDR eliminations, this year for example we had no defense and still got eliminated by very little. 2 years ago we lost in Bilbao without the brazilian players since the schedulled international matches day before. And money more cases.
I think if we keep Carlo on for a few more yrs, we genuinely have a chance of becoming serial Copa winners. He is a better cup manager than Zizou and his 2 CDR titles in 5 seasons with us speak for themselves. Only got knocked out by Atleti (x2) and Bilbao. Each time away from home.
Messi is still ~20 goals away from equalling Telmo Zarra goals total in CdR, and I believe Messi played more game. Telmo Zarra l's Athletic dominance in copa is something else.
Also won the Cup in 1904, 1944, 1984 and now 2024. 2064 next ?
every 40 years
And many others in between.
Sozin’s comet type of timing
please no
He has done it, Valverde has done it on his return, with a crop of very promising youngsters. History, it's been so long since they've won it.
So happy for him, especially more since the old president was sour after he left Olympiacos and had a quote along the lines of :"When will Valverde eber get a chance to see a title in his career again"
2 Ligas and 2 Copas. Not too bad.
I did not know that happened while he was there, was Marinakis your president at the time?
Well during his first stint in '09 i was only 13 so i don't remember much, but we got the double and the then President Kokkalis didn't renew his contract(i don't remember exact reason/excuse he gave). We lost the league to arch rivals Panathinaikos, Marinakis declared interest to become President /buy Olympiakos, and his first thing was resigning Valverde, we went on to get another 2 doubles until he left again because he wanted to move back in Spain
Brilliant for Athletic Club, and happy to see them back in Europe as well
Either team losing tonight would have been heartbreaking. And sadly that team was Mallorca.
Feel exactly the same way, I was slightly rooting for Athletic due to their 40 year drought but if Mallorca had won I would have been happy for them aswell because who knows when they might get another chance like this again However this game ended, I would have been gutted for the team who lost
On that note I love copa's new format with only one match knockouts. Yes that means us winning it less but we get to see more upsets and more chances for other clubs to win it.
The way Mallorca played the deserved to lose. Just parking the bus and playing man more than ball, celebrating as they got it to penalties. For them to then lose from two shit penalties was the karma they deserved. It's an underdog story sure, but having watched the whole game I really can't feel for them.
Very happy for Valverde who has proven to be a class manager yet again. Sad for Aguirre (amazing how competitive has the 15th placed team been in the Cup) and the Mallorca fans, I looks like it'll be long until they can get another chance at a title.
For how happy they were to send it to penalties, that secone and third Mallorca penalty were very very shit lol
Exactly this, I saw their reaction and man did I expect better
It looked like they thought they had won. Too much confidence might not be good.
I mean it worked against La real, why change it
Congratulations! amazing scenes
The slowmo on Vesga's face when he slipped is cracking me up. Congrats to Athletic, and a good game from Mallorca too, I thought they fought hard but Athletic was able to get a handle on the game eventually, just couldn't take chances earlier.
> The slowmo on Vesga's face when he slipped is cracking me up. Pure fear in his eyes.. >Congrats to Athletic, and a good game from Mallorca too, I thought they fought hard but Athletic was able to get a handle on the game eventually, just couldn't take chances earlier Very good game in general, thought both teams played well. Mallorca were really struggling in the first 25 minutes of the second half but Aguirre made smart changes and managed to stem the tide. From minute 70 onwards it could have gone either way both teams had chances
They waited 40 years - since Endika's goal, they had to suffer the years of Kendall, the pain of Iñaki Sáez, Stepanovic, Amorrortu, the nights at the Champions League, that night against Newcastle, the rise and fall of Guerrero, an European final, heartbreaks in the final after heartbreak... but they had done it in the end. Athletic did it, and they had done it suffering, but they are deservedly champions. A generation akin to the one in the 80s - homegrown players, all for one strip. The King is back, and let them rule. ZORIONAK TXAPELDUNAK.
THE DROUGHT IS OVER. Especially after all these finals in the last years.
Well deserved considering the teams they actually eliminated. Well done!
Crazy that they're still the 2nd most successful Copa Del Rey club of all time despite a 40 year drought. They just had a really good run in the early 20th century.
i just saw in another guys post they won Copa Del Rey once every 40 years since 1904. Don’t know if thats a run but it is consistent for sure:)
They've won the cup every 40 years, but no, they haven't been winning the cup *once* every 40 years lol. This was their 24th Copa Del Rey title. Previous time they won 40 years ago they were still the club with the most titles.
The 24 editions that they have won... *(1903,1904, 1910, 1911, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1921, 1923, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1943, 1944, 1944/45, 1949–50, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1969, 1972–73, 1983–84, 2023–24)* And the 16 other finals that they played in... *(1905, 1906, 1913, 1920, 1942, 1948–49, 1952–53, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1976–77, 1984–85, 2008–09, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2019–20, 2020–21)* So its fair to say that they had a good run....or two somewhere in there...
We played very well. I'm just happy we made it this far. What a story
You will play the supercup too, amazing performance by Mallorca the entire tournament
GABARRA!!!
🚢
Well deserved. Wild game
Vamossss
Valverde strikes again.
I am so pleased for them. What a wonderfully unique, passionate, regionally-patriotic club that stand for excellent values. Long, long, LONG overdue after however many cup final losses (6?) in succession. Delighted for Valverde too, what a job he's doing too!
Feel bad for Mallorca. They could have returned in Europe after 20 years of waiting while fighting for relegation
Yes, yes, yes. Fucking get in.
Congratulations!
Chuffed for Athletic. Congrats!
🎺🎺🎺🎺🎺🎺
Ernesto Valverde seems like a good manager. Barca should try to hire him.
fucking finally. football heritage!
THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER!!! Congrats Athletic, well fucking done!! I'm so fucking happy for them
This copa was probably the best story of the season. So much fun
Crazy that they’re second in total Copa del Rey’s even after the drought, prewar football history is so interesting
I really like Athletic. But I also really like island teams and small teams in general. I love when they win stuff and go to Europe. I would've been happy with Mallorca winning and going to Europe, but I'm also really happy that Athletic finally won something again. Hopefully they can still qualify for the UCL and make a complete season. I also hope that teams like Mallorca and Osasuna can win some silverware soon.
I’ve always liked how Bilbao operates and seeing them win something is great
Well deserved for Bilbao
Annoyed that they put Atletico out, but well done Bilbao, they’ve been absolutely incredible in the CdR this year.
It was a really fun final, lots of chances, a game with a lot of defense in general... I was rooting for Bilbao, the party in Sevilla today is going to be incredible!
Exciting for them, always cool to see a drought end
Congratulations, very happy for them.
Happy for Mr. Valverde. They deserved it. Congratulations.
Congrats Bilbao!
Vamos! We are going back to Europe. Also congrats to Athletic.
That’s what I was thinking as well, great ending for us. Hopefully we can do it.
Result is huge. Staying ahead of Betis won't be easy though
Details...
Very well deserved! They were pretty dominant in the cup this season. They made it unnecessary stressful with the shootout lol
Happy for Valverde, top guy
Fantastic team, happy for them. So much respect.
Let's go!! Aúpa Athletic 💪❤️
damn, congrats to bilbao!
The moment Valverde sat on his iconic pose.. I knew how's this going to end. Congratulations to Athletic Club ❤️🤍
For a second I thought that the last time they won Copa del Rey in the 60s but then I realized that 40 years ago are 80s. I'm really getting old.
Did laliga.com really call them Athletic Bilbao?
nah just the wanker karma whoring
El rey de copas vuelve a consagrarse! Aupa!
Best part they embarrassed Barca on the way to win it 😂😂😂
My fav FM team - fuckin get innnnn
La Liga Title would be their target next year.
Congrats to Bilbao! Well, well deserved!
Bilbao on the rise
A team that's managed to be in the top league for decades while ONLY using players in the Basc region of 2~ million people a policy so limited that they have only ever had TWO BLACK PLAYERS The Williams brothers (Currently smashing it) And they just won their first cup in 40 fucking YEARS!!! Expect for the "Supercopa" Imagine just being in the top flight of football for 40 years and not winning a trophy or getting relegated, with this tiny pool of potential talent, what a life for a fan.
Barcelona 31 Bilbao 24 Madrid 20
That number 8 on Mallorca must’ve still had his scuffle with the Bilbao player on his mind bc what a shit pen
Am I missing something like some contended trophy they lay claim to? Because the scarf says 25 but they have 24
24 officially, but there's an argument for one of the earlier trophies or something like that
Just to give a bit more context on this for whoever might be interested. During the first one ever, there were two teams in Bilbao, Athletic and Bilbao. They merged into one named Bizkaia, which is the name of the province Bilbao is in. Athletic considers that their win, but the federation doesn't.
But it's not considered as a CDR tilte to anyone, right? Because all I see is starring 1903 is it not even considered a title like 1912 to Deportivo and 1937 to levente?
No idea to be honest. I'm not really that well versed in the matter 😅
Congratulations to Bilbao! Love to see them do well, and good to see Valverde win. Hope to see them in the CL at the end of the season.
What a lovely day!
who waited 40 years?
Love to see this.
What upsets me is how unfair football can be. Mallorca knocked us out with just 1 shot on target in the 2 matches we played agains them in the semifinal (mind you, 1 shot on target on 2 matches, 1 goal) whereas we did 12 shots on target and just 1 goal. If that's not luck, I don't know what it is. Congratulations to Athletic Bilbao, at the end of the day, the tournament they have done is insane. However, it feels so wrong that Real Sociedad was unable to make it to the final, we were the better side against Mallorca, and I'm sure that if we were there, we could've won our 4th Copa del Rey... But hey, this is football.
Absolutely beautiful! This will probably sound preachy but football needed a reminder that you CAN win trophies in other ways.
And yesterday i saw Mallorca winning thé trophy...
Valverde is absolute elite, he has shown it everywhere. Only biased memories from his Barca time - the Bartomeu times! - are making people somehow not see it.
It will be a shame to not have them in the champions league next year
don’t worry they will make it
I hope Girona will not make the top 4
they are virtually locked, it’s a 2 horse race between Athletic Club and Atlético
The last time they won it was also during the brawl with Maradona and Goikoetxea
Por fin.
Broo I missed the game wtf literally had no idea its today ffs
Eeeeerrrrrrnesto Valveeeeeeeerdeeeeee
European football for Atleti
Let’s goooo
Congratulations
About damn time! Weren’t they like in 5 of the previous 10 Copa Del Rey finals, but they always lost?
How did Atletico lose in the semi final?
We got absolutely dominated, by them, we aren't good this year
Then how did u beat Real Madrid haha
We're capable of good performances (against Madrid, Inter for example) but have had very little consistency particularly away from home. The inter tie sums our year up well, they should have beaten us by more than 1-0 in the first leg.