Former Barcelona assistant manager Eder Sarabia has defended his time at the club, citing the opportunities he has had since. Sarabia made a name for himself through his strict attitude and loud way of expressing himself, something that apparently did not go well at Barcelona in a dressing room full of stars.
Sarabia arrived alongside Quique Setien during a disastrous eight-month spell that saw Barcelona lose La Liga and suffer Europe's worst-ever defeat to Bayern Munich.
Speaking to Relevo, the now Elche manager points out that he was later hired by Andorra owner Gerard Pique to manage the team.
“On the one hand, people were looking for things to go wrong, and then it got bigger, but hey, I can't have done that badly, otherwise I wouldn't have been involved when Gerard Pique was the one who got me for Andorra hired. and if the representative agency I have is Griezmann's, I give these two examples. That's the first thing, and then the relationship that has continued with different footballers and a few conversations I had with Leo for example, which (exhales) were great. I say that Leo is not only the best in history at playing football, but also at understanding football.”
He goes on to explain how much he enjoyed talking to Messi.
“One of those conversations took place on the training pitch, when the session was over. We had been playing a game and there was a pressing action, which was some sort of disorganized pressing, and eventually they got out and created a chance to score. So I took advantage of that game a little bit to try to get Leo involved as well, to help us in these kinds of situations, to try to help his teammates, organize them…'
“Football conversations, which I also remember later that when I entered the staff locker room, they were a bit surprised because hardly anyone had really had a 30-40 minute conversation with Leo (smiles), of course and talking about football and everything what he did. and because, as I said, it was scandalous how he understood things.
Sarabia's Elche are currently in fourth place in Segunda as they target promotion. He was sacked from Andorra earlier this year after three years in charge, during which he managed to bring the club from the principality of Segunda and keep it there for the first time.
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