Jon Aspiazu, who was Ernesto Valverde’s second coach for two and a half seasons, gave an interview to the program ‘Què t’hi jugues’ from Ser Catalunya where he made an extensive inventory of his time at the Blaugrana club, including also the two great failures in Europe, both in Rome and Liverpool.
In fact, Aspiazu recalled that after 3-0 at the Camp Nou in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals, the team went to Anfield with a certain pride. To justify this sentence, Valverde’s assistant explained an anecdote: “We coaches were going to that game with many fears. In fact, a player during the technical talk told us ‘mister, but how are we going to lose today?’ and Valverde told him ‘I’m the coach, I have to put myself in all the tessitura’ “. In fact, Aspiazu continues to review that game every day: “The game in Liverpool was much more even than the final result reflected. But the last goal was so decisive and so unusual that it ended up being an incredible drag.”
He was also very upset by the way Bartomeu decided to do without them: “It is evident that it was not the most opportune moment. We were first in the League and we had passed the group stage of the Champions League without losing a game, but the club decided to swerve … “
On the explanations given by the then technical secretary, Eric Abidal, on the fact that the team did not train enough, Aspiazu acknowledged feeling insulted: “Ma started laughing. Keep in mind that Barça is a special team that plays every three days and gets fit by playing. It’s a very specific way of working. “
Aspiazu took the opportunity to remember that it was they who bet on Ansu Fati: “We saw him in the subsidiary and from the first moment he seemed like a special kid. We made him go up to a training session in the first team and Valverde when he saw him play already told us: ‘Ansu stays with us’ “.
