Valverde’s sack: Barcelona’s president, Bartomeu speaks about a large project

Following calls that embattled Barcelona coach, Ernesto Valverde sack, Barcelona president, Josep Bartomeu, has expressed faith in the manager.

Despite the team’s performance in La Liga and Spanish cup, calls for Valverde’s sack are coming after the team’s woeful performance against Liverpool in the second leg of the semi-final in the champions league.

The Spanish champions wrapped up back-to-back La Liga titles with a 1-0 win over Levante on April 27.

Speaking at the ‘Kubala’ book presentation on Thursday, Bartomeu said: “Valverde said the other day that he has the support of the president and the board. He’s the coach we want.

“We’re halfway through a large project. He has a contract and we’re very happy with him. Now it’s about how the players recover from the enormous setback.

“It’s been a magnificent season, we’ve won [the league] with games to spare. We all want more. Now we’ve got the Copa del Rey final and we’re coming off the back of a damaging defeat.

“Now it’s about recuperating the support, the excitement, the will to compete and we’ve still got a week of training left.”