Valverde reveals how he felt as a visiting coach at Camp Nou

Ernesto Valverde put himself into Pablo Machín's shoes following Barcelona's 6-1 romp over Girona on Saturday and recalled the times when his Athletic Club sides suffered humiliating results at Camp Nou in years gone by. The Barça coach put his thinking cap on when asked who he would give the best coach award to...

"(Thinks)… I don’t know. There are a lot of candidates… Guardiola perhaps. There are a lot of coaches to choose from. Apart from Pep, who is a brilliant coach, I was quite impressed by the coach whose side played us today. He’s come here with Girona, who are having an extraordinary season and he is leading a team who are in their first ever season in the first division; they are play at an incredible level. The most important thing about all of this aren’t the results but the consequences of what you see out on the pitch – the enthusiasm which he gets over to his players – even when they are losing… I told him after the game, ‘Don’t worry because I have also had to come here as a visiting coach and I know what it’s like’. Messi gets hold of the ball and you freeze, you have no idea what to do… That’s how it is. But despite all of that, he has managed to maintain his ideas and generate team spirit among his squad, you can see that they are alive and well. Maybe he won’t be among the coaches who will win an award but he deserves credit too”.