Is Jorge Sampaoli the man to replace Luis Enrique at Barcelona?

[DonAK]

The thing is you are talking about "if things goes south" when it should be "if things goes right" argument at this point.
Sampaoli is making a case for himself? may be,he is doing fine in a very small sample size.
But at the same time he isn't the only one who have a case for himself,Marcelino done a marvelous job with Villarreal for example. His successor Escribá is having a good start for the season in worse circumstances than Sampaoli.
You know who is coaching a much inferior team and he is just 2 points below Sevilla? Eusebio. a former Barca player,one of Barca B most successful coaches despite bad ending too. And Valverde is a coach who has been on club radar for some time.
Gerard might make case for himself if he lead team to promotion.
And before all of them I would put my money on Unzué.
I am not saying that those guys are better options,Sampaoli might prove to be the best.
But in premature discussion like this (and premature might be an understatement) the options that can be discussed is unlimited.
The club should always have their eyes on different coaches just in case and Sampaoli is a coach to follow closely. But in no way he should be favorite until he proves himself in Europe in a full season at least

We've appointed coaches with little to no European Experience. How experienced was Frank Rijkaard? Sure he led Netherlands in the 2000' Euro, but also got fired after one season in Rotterdam. Didn't turn out that bad, did it? In contrast to that, Sampaoli got a lot of experience and success in South America in Club and National Team Football.

The reason Sampaoli is on most people's radar is because of the football he makes his teams play. The style, pressure, movement that consists of some of Barca's fundamentals. If success was the only factor then you could list a dozen of more coaches, but is that the only, and the most deciding factor when appointing a coach? In that case, why didn't we appoint Jose Mourinho in 2008?

It's not a premature discussion. In that case every transfer speculation or questions or discussions about signing a player is premature. Why even bother having any discussions before July? The title of the poll literally says 'IF Lucho decides to leave'. You don't need to discuss a dozen of candidates in one single thread or poll. This is specifically about one coach.

 

[Hamzah]

When is Xavi going to become a coach?

 

[raminho]

I think Sampaoli has the tactical "know how" to really help Barça stay at the top when Lucho leaves. He's shown it with Chile and now with the very entertaining and effective Sevilla.
Would love to see Xavi as his assistant, he could definitely learn a thing or too from Sampaoli.

But if we get our midfield back and our injured players back on form, I can live with another season with Lucho. But clearly soon we're gonna need a change. And with our young signings, Sampaoli could definitely make the most of them IMO.

 

[khaled_a_d]

We've appointed coaches with little to no European Experience. How experienced was Frank Rijkaard? Sure he led Netherlands in the 2000' Euro, but also got fired after one season in Rotterdam. Didn't turn out that bad, did it? In contrast to that, Sampaoli got a lot of experience and success in South America in Club and National Team Football.

The reason Sampaoli is on most people's radar is because of the football he makes his teams play. The style, pressure, movement that consists of some of Barca's fundamentals. If success was the only factor then you could list a dozen of more coaches, but is that the only, and the most deciding factor when appointing a coach? In that case, why didn't we appoint Jose Mourinho in 2008?

It's not a premature discussion. In that case every transfer speculation or questions or discussions about signing a player is premature. Why even bother having any discussions before July? The title of the poll literally says 'IF Lucho decides to leave'. You don't need to discuss a dozen of candidates in one single thread or poll. This is specifically about one coach.

Rijkaarfd was way more experienced in Europe than Sampaoli.
Being an all time gr8 player who was coached by some of the greatest coaches including Barca former coaches LVG & Crujif. being known and recommended by Crujif himself and had been assistant for Netherlands under Hiddnik then becoming a very good coach for the NT who plays Barca football.
Sampaoli?he is a coach in cubs in Chile,Ecuador & Peru then had good stint with Chile NT,won Copa their (and they have won it again after him) and while their pressing is good their game was never Barca esque IMO.
Sampaoli is closer to Tata than Rijkaard in his CV
And discussing transfers right now is way premature,and discussing signing a player who has moved to Europe last July to replace Iniesta for example would be laughable.
Again,he is someone we should keep an eye onto and he might climb the "favorite ranking" but up until the season ends he shouldn't be favorite.

 

[serghei]

Sampaoli made Chile Copa America champions for the first time in their history. And he did it competing with teams having higher rated players. Marcellino, Eusebio and Scriba don't have such a big achievement in their career, not even close. So, european experiece or not, Sampaoli is better than those managers based on his excellent work as Chile's manager.

He certainly has more experience at the highest level than Lucho did when he was named Barcelona manager for example.

 

[mssarm]

It's a no for me at this point. We don't even know how he will end the season. Bigger question: can he deal with Barca players/club management. For any outsider it will be very difficult at Barca, especially if you don't have proven track record. Chile experience is not going to help him, he needs to have brilliant season with Sevilla before he can appear on Barca management's radar.

 

[serghei]

He's on his way of getting Sevilla out from a CL group for the first time since 2010-11. Not only that, but he could even win the group in front of a force like Juventus. That is already a better european performance than in previous years.

 

[khaled_a_d]

He's on his way of getting Sevilla out from a CL group for the first time since 2010-11. Not only that, but he could even win the group in front of a force like Juventus. That is already a better european performance than in previous years.

This is their 2nd time in CL since then man. And they can thank Emery(and UEFA changing their rule) not Sampaoli for that. And the 1st time they had both City & Juve in the group.
So no,that isn't really a better European performance or at least not thanks to him. may be if he finished 1st then he has accomplished something. But otherwise he is just doing what is expected from a team like Sevilla in such group in CL.

 

[serghei]

This is their 2nd time in CL since then man. And they can thank Emery(and UEFA changing their rule) not Sampaoli for that. And the 1st time they had both City & Juve in the group.
So no,that isn't really a better European performance or at least not thanks to him. may be if he finished 1st then he has accomplished something. But otherwise he is just doing what is expected from a team like Sevilla in such group in CL.

We will see. Last year Sevilla finished 3rd in their CL group, with 6 points, and 7th in La Liga with 52 points, having won ZERO away games. I'd say Sampaoli is on his way to improve on that. In CL he has 10 points in 4 games. That already is a vast improvement.

OK, so Sevilla had City in their group last year. So what? If they beat Barcelona and Real Madrid in Seville, they should've beaten a not so special City side as well.

 

[Messi983]

I love Sampaoli's coaching style and he would clearly be on my shortlist of 3 coaches without Barça connections together with Thomas Tuechel and Marcelino as our future coach. Not only next one after Lucho but in 5-10 years as well.

But is Sampaoli really "the man to replace Lucho" right now? I'm not totally sure yet and can understand some doubts that other people have about him. He's still pretty unproven in Europe and although he started good with Sevilla we'll see how he'll continue. His high pressing style demands a lot of energy from players and we'll see if he can keep Sevilla playing this way for the whole season through injuries and suspensions of important players. It's easier with NTs when you can get everything out of your players for 10-12 games per season than doing the same thing with club for around 50 games. Even if he manages to do that with smart rotating it's one thing to rotate players he currently has at Sevilla and another one to convince big name players (MSN especially) at Barça that resting/rotate them sometimes is the best for their own and team longterm interest. We know that Lucho can't/don't really rest MSN either and probably every coach in the world would have a hard time really doing better than he does in that regard so that's not really a knock on Sampaoli, just one thing to consider. Luckily for us, we don't need to find Lucho's replacement now so we'll have (at least) until the end of the season to further evaluate Sampaoli and other possible Lucho's successors if/when he decides to leave.

That said, I hope Lucho will stay for at least another season. And after failed Tata experiment I think the board will choose new coach with previous Barça playing and/or coaching experience. Xavi is the obvious candidate but we don't know if he's ready yet so I think we'll choose between the likes of Valverde (he was already on our shortlist the last 3 or 4 times we were selecting new coach), Oscar Garcia, Eusebio (I know he's not very liked here after how he finished with Barça B but we have to admit he's doing good job with Sociedad so far, so I guess we'll at least consider him) and of course we shouldn't forget Unzue (I don't know if he has manager ambitions or if he's just happy to be assistant coach though).

 

[Silas]

Do people still think Enrique should remain our coach?

 

[DRUNKY]

I honestly had Ronald Koeman in mind, just amazing what he does with Everton.

 

[TornAndFrayed]

Sampa would be my clear first choice, but there are several other names to replace Lucho. I want him gone next season, provided he stagnates/barely improves with tactics and substitutions.

 

[Total-Football]

i'm discontent with Luis but i'm not a fan of changing managers .. at least respect the 4 years lifespan

 

[CatalinR10]

i don't know why ya'll want lucho to leave