Barcelona correspondent Alexandra Jonson chronicles Luis Enrique’s roller coaster ride of a first season at FC Barcelona, where the Asturian went from criticized to revered in a matter of months, managing to keep his head down and forge ahead with what he thought was right.
”Being FC Barcelona’s coach is so wonderful it’s unimaginable” Luis Enrique declared over a year ago when he was presented as the clubs new head coach. Back then he was on the top of the world, today he is too, but it hasn’t been an easy ride.
While Sporting de Gijon will always be the club he hold dearest to his heart, FC Barcelona has quite a big part of that heart as well. Something that was impossible to miss when Luis Enrique was presented in May 2014. He was glowing as he met the press and it was obvious that it was one of the best days in his career. ”Today I was thinking how fantastic it will be to coach FC Barcelona and even if it wasn’t sunny I managed to see the sun when I walked outside and it made me smile”, he told the media that day.
But to coach FC Barcelona has been a difficult task and it hasn’t always been that fantastic. Even though Lucho’s team got off to a great start and had yet to let in a single goal in the league after eight rounds. It wouldn’t take too long before the ship started to shake.
”When we let in our first goal or lose our first game, everything I do will be questioned, but I will stick to what I think is right”, he said a few days before they got their first loss of the season away to PSG in the Champions League, and he was right.
At that point, Barcelona had impressed by winning games but they had yet to really impress on the pitch. The critics started to come and the biggest question on everyone’s mind was simply ”does Luis Enrique know what he is doing, does he have a plan?”.
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