Quique Setien, Van Halen and Barcelona, a club which is now rotten to its core

Remember Gary Cherone? Is the name ringing any bells?

In the early 1990s, Cherone was the frontman of American rock band Extreme, who enjoyed major worldwide success with acoustic ballad More Than Words, along with a string of more minor hits. After a few years, though, the usual old ‘artistic differences’ derailed the band, and in 1996 they split up.

Cherone was left without a job and wondering what to do next, despondent at the disintegration of his life’s work. But then came a bolt from the blue and an offer he simply could not refuse: the chance to become the new lead singer of rock giants Van Halen. He could scarcely believe his luck. Van Halen, although by then a fading force, were true titans of the music scene and Cherone – like every other rocker of his generation – had grown up idolising them. It was, quite literally, his dream job.

So he jumped at the opportunity and headed into the studio…where everything quickly unravelled as Cherone discovered the band and everything surrounding them was in a state of decay. His personal relationships with the other members were fine, but the environment around the band had turned sour, and the chemistry just wasn’t right.

In particular, genius guitarist Eddie Van Halen – widely regarded as one of the greatest rock guitar players of all-time – appeared to be burdened by a need to do everything. Instead of just writing killer riffs, he now felt obliged to also play bass, write piano-based songs, add vocals, arrange and produce, as well as confronting a pile of ugly responsibilities away from the studio…and as a result of all that interference to his primary task, the old magic just wasn’t there.

Nevertheless Cherone stuck with it, and the album Van Halen III was released in 1998. Fans and critics alike hated it. One reviewer, Michael Christopher, summed up the general mood by complaining that “the whole thing just felt dirty”, and it was entirely predictable when Cherone left the band soon after their tour in support of the universally derided album.

His dream job had turned into a nightmare.

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Poor old Quique Setien.

In January, after eight months without a job following his firing by Real Betis, Setien was unexpectedly gifted the chance to coach Barcelona. True, the team he was inheriting was looking like a fading force, but as a lifelong disciple of Barca’s famous Johan Cruyff-inspired style of play, it was an offer he could not refuse. It was, quite literally, his dream job.

So he jumped at the opportunity and headed to the Camp Nou… where everything quickly unravelled as Setien discovered the team and everything surrounding them was in a state of decay. His personal relationships with the players were fine, but the environment around the team had turned sour, and the chemistry just wasn’t right.

In particular, genius forward Lionel Messi – widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all-time – appeared to be burdened by a need to do everything. Instead of just focussing his efforts on goalscoring, he now felt obliged to also play as a creative midfielder, as a deeper-lying passer and as a winger, as well as confronting a pile of ugly responsibilities away from the field of play…and as a result of all that interference to his primary task, the old magic just wasn’t there.

Enough. We’ll stop there, because you get the point. Quique Setien’s job in taking over as Barcelona manager obviously isn’t exactly the same as Gary Cherone’s job in taking over as Van Halen’s lead singer, and there are as many differences in their respective situations as there are similarities.

But it is an instructive exercise to consider how ‘dream job’ scenarios can often turn into quite the opposite, especially in the endlessly pressured and ego-strewn competitive environment of elite performance, where success is fleeting, fortune is fickle, and catastrophe can always be lying just around the corner.

Worryingly for Setien and Barca fans, it’s also worth pondering that Cherone, with the gift of hindsight, never really had a chance of succeeding with Van Halen, and not through any fault of his own. There were just too many deep-seated problems and irreconcilable differences which were never going to be overcome, and he was doomed to failure from the very beginning.

Can the same be said for Setien at Barca?

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This really has been an unbelievable 2020 for Barcelona, to the extent that if it was part of a movie, it would be dismissed as unrealistic.

The year started with a derby draw at Espanyol and a defeat against Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals of the Spanish Super Cup trip to Jeddah, leading to the firing of Ernesto Valverde. Two games and less than two weeks into the new year, and they were already one manager down. Then the first choice replacement, Xavi, turned the job down, and so did Ronald Koeman. So Setien, third-choice at best, was given a sudden chance to revive a career which had previously appeared to be heading fast towards retirement.

Just a couple of weeks later, controversy struck when sporting director Eric Abidal used a newspaper interview as an opportunity to suggest that some players had not been trying hard enough. Skipper Messi, reflecting the mood of the squad, took the criticism personally and hit back at his former teammate via social media, nearly resulting in Abidal being fired.

At the same time, Ousmane Dembele and Luis Suarez were struck down by long-term injuries, leading to the emergency signing of Martin Braithwaite from Leganes. The rest of the squad, meanwhile, had been trimmed drastically during the January transfer window due to the club’s desperate financial situation, leaving only 15 senior outfield players on the roster.

Then, just before a potentially title-deciding Clasico trip to Real Madrid, more off-the-field controversy emerged after it was alleged that club president Josep Maria Bartomeu had paid a social media company to run a smear campaign against a selection of former and current players and their associates, including Messi’s wife.

Before that scandal had fully cleared, the world was plunged into a far bigger crisis and all sport was stopped by the outbreak of COVID-19…but even then Barca still somehow managed to hog the negative headlines, with Bartomeu portraying his players as the bad guys for supposedly being reluctant to accept a pay cut, forcing the increasingly vocal and vitriolic Messi into yet another Instagram pronouncement to contradict his president’s claims.

And if that wasn’t enough, this week has seen a return of the ‘Barcagate’ social media scandal, with six board members resigning and one of them – Emili Rousaud – alleging that either Bartomeu or another senior director had their ‘hand in the till’ during the episode. Rousaud, needless to say, is now being sued by the club he had served, until last week, as a vice-president.

Even for the soap opera specialists of FC Barcelona, fitting all that scandal and intrigue into just three and a half months is an impressive feat indeed.

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Take a quick glance at the catalogue of controversy Barca have packed into their disastrous 2020, and try to imagine how such a beleaguered institution could possibly expect to enjoy success on the field of play if the currently suspended season is ever given the chance to resume.

Although one should never say never in football, it’s exceptionally difficult to envisage a club where so much is going so badly wrong could possibly end up with a major trophy. Even with the presence of Messi and despite the fact that they are somehow top (!!) of La Liga, their season looks destined to end badly. Perhaps very badly indeed, with the vicious political infighting likely to get worse before it gets better and the question of Messi’s growing discontent looming large.

Now take another quick glance at this tale of woe and ask yourself: what could Quique Setien, or any other manager, do or have done to improve the situation? And the answer is…nothing. Nothing at all.

Injuries, poor squad planning prior to his arrival, financial collapse, political battles, disputes between players and the board, directorial resignations, lawsuits…they are all beyond the realm of influence for a mere coach. And so Setien, still only three months into his ‘dream job’ – one-third of which has been spent without games or any other kind of contact with his players due to an unprecedented global health crisis – has been forced to sit there, absorb every new twist and turn, scratch his head and wait for the day that he can be given a peaceful chance to actually coach his football team.

That day may never come. When (if) action resumes, the task of holding everything together within such a toxic snakepit of a club will require near-miraculous changes in circumstance. Never mind the tactical question of their excessive reliance upon Messi for attacking inspiration, their slow and disjointed midfield and their defensive vulnerability against rapid counter-attacks, the overall health of the club, from top to bottom, is rotten to the core, and conjuring a positive set of results in that environment would surely be beyond the combined powers of the Fairy Godmother, Harry Potter and Santa Claus…never mind a man who has never won a major trophy and was fired by Real Betis less than a year ago.

And the saddest thing, from the perspective of this likeable, eloquent and deeply-principled coach, is that there is absolute nothing he can do about it.

On the outside, any football manager would regard being given the chance to manage FC Barcelona as a wonderful, glorious, once-in-a-lifetime treat. On the outside, any rock star would regard being asked to become Van Halen’s new lead singer in a similarly glitzy light.

On the inside, things can look very different. Very different indeed.

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A few years after his departure from the band, Gary Cherone adopted a philosophical approach when he was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine about his failed spell as lead singer for one of the world’s biggest rock bands.

“At the end of the day,” he stated. “I’m gonna say, ‘Hey, I was singer in the mighty Van Halen.’ You can’t take that away from me.”

Before too long, the only crumb of comfort left for Quique Setien could be that he can always say: “Hey, I was coach of the mighty FC Barcelona. You can’t take that away from me.”

Right now, it’s hard to see how his story can have a happier ending.