Luis Enrique WILL stay next season: Barça coach set to complete second year

Josep Maria Bartomeu is smiling again. The Barcelona president is one step away from putting out one of the big fires that threaten the club in the final stretch of the season. For a few days now, the Barcelona chief has been convinced that Luis Enrique will at least see out his current contract. That's to say, the Asturian coach will continue at the club next season. Rumours that the Blaugrana coach will announce his goodbye at the end of the season were growing and becoming widespread.

Just after sealing the title at the Vicente Calderon, Bartomeu said in many interviews that he had not the slightest doubt that Enrique will finish his contract, which expires at the end of next season. His words didn't really assuage the doubts about Enrique continuing, the doubts about him quitting hours after Barcelona's Champions League final clash with Juventus in Berlin. 

However, the Barcelona president played with an advantage. In the last few weeks, there have been various meetings between Enrique and Bartomeu. These encounters have served to dispell doubts and for the president to understand first-hand the desires and will of the coach, beyond June 6. 

The Barcelona president, along with the rest of the board, technical commission and high-ranking executives at the club, understand Enrique's anger at the way some of the conflicts were handled internally after the defeat at Anoeta in January. The sacking of Zubizarreta and the lack of explicit support for the coach, led to a widespread feeling that Enrique was far more inclined to go than to stay. 

Bartomeu, for his part, wanted to feel the coach's opinion on the season and his opinion on how it developed. Both parties are content with the meetings that took place. 

The Barcelona president now knows all the details that the coach, who took the club to the league title, suffered. Bartomeu has taken note of the list of complaints the coach has and will aim to solve as many as he can, to make Enrique's day-to-day life more comfortable at the club. 

The Asturian had told his inner-circle that he did not feel backed, and at times powerless, during the trickiest moments of the season. In public, Enrique has not been shy at pointing out how he felt weakened by Zubi's departure, and members of the technical team. Messages of support for the former sporting director have been constant in recent weeks. And if that were not enough, the coach has repeatedly avoided meetings scheduled by the technical committee for planning for the 2015-16 season. An attitude that fuelled speculation that his reign at the club would not extend past Berlin. 

Bartomeu feels moderately optimistic - Enrique will stay for the rest of his contract. He will work to change the problems inside and outside the club that the coach is not happy with. Above all, there is the feeling that the coach has experienced a personal evolution in recent months. 

We are far from the time Enrique declared that he was the leader, an unfortunate statement in a squad filled with world stars. This started the Enrique era off on the wrong foot. Now it feels like the Asturian is in control of the dressing room, without needing tor resort to authoritarian tactics. A real manager, and the suspicions of the past have died down. 

Unless Lucho changes his mind about speaking about his future - something that has angered him when journalists ask questions about it in press conferences - we will have to wait until after the big finals that lie ahead of confirm that he will continue next season. But absolute normality is appearing, as the threatening storm clouds drift away.