From the day Setién received Barcelona's invitation to become head coach, he knew he was taking over a hot potato.
Real Madrid's winning streak had put Barcelona under enormous pressure. The sudden rise of the genius young coach Yang Yang had made him the brightest star in European Football, casting every other player and head coach into the shadows. Naturally, no famous coach was willing to take over Barcelona.
It was an extremely high-risk job!
But Setién came in the end!
Unlike those famous coaches, he could never refuse an invitation from a powerhouse like Barcelona, no matter when it came.
At sixty-one, even for a head coach, he was already considered rather old.
Yet at that age, Setién's coaching career was still an utter failure.
He had spent most of his playing career with his hometown club Racing Santander. He had also played for Atletico Madrid, Rogroñes, Levante, and other clubs before retiring at the age of thirty-eight—in 1996.
Five years later, he picked up the coaching reins and took charge of his hometown club Racing Santander. At the time, Racing Santander were in Segunda División and had made a poor start to the season. Setién took over from the eighth round onward to rescue the team, but ultimately failed to produce satisfactory results.
After that, he went four full years without coaching any team, until he took over Rogroñes in 2006.
It was worth mentioning that in October 2006, he had represented Rogroñes in Equatorial Guinea to sign a cooperation agreement. The Africa Cup qualifying matches were taking place at the time, and Equatorial Guinea's Brazilian head coach, Dumas, had just been sacked. Thus, the Equatorial Guinea Football Association invited Setién to become the National Team's head coach and promised to sign him after the match.
Having lacked