Barcelona president speaks on sacking Valverde as manager

Barcelona president, Josep Bartomeu, has expressed his full backing for manager Ernesto Valverde, despite calls for his sack.

The Spanish champions wrapped up back-to-back La Liga titles with a 1-0 win over Levante on April 27.

After this weekend’s league fixture against Eibar, they will switch their attention to a Copa del Rey final against Valencia six days later.

Despite being within touching distance of another domestic double, Valverde’s position has come under scrutiny since his side were dumped out of the Champions League in dramatic fashion at the hands of Liverpool.

Speaking at the ‘Kubala’ book presentation on Thursday, Bartomeu said: “Valverde said the other day that he has the support of the president and the board. He’s the coach we want.

“We’re halfway through a large project. He has a contract and we’re very happy with him. Now it’s about how the players recover from the enormous setback.

“It’s been a magnificent season, we’ve won [the league] with games to spare. We all want more. Now we’ve got the Copa del Rey final and we’re coming off the back of a damaging defeat.

“Now it’s about recuperating the support, the excitement, the will to compete and we’ve still got a week of training left.”