“Oh, and another thing…”

Luis Enrique announces he will leave Barcelona at the end of the season.

- Sid Lowe

Luis Enrique delivered the news as if it was nothing much, at the end of a routine press conference, after a routine victory, late on a Wednesday night.

He sat there and answered everything thrown at him, which for once didn’t include a question about his future. And then, when the interviews were finished, he spoke about his future. A few minutes before, he had informed his players in the dressing room following their victory over Sporting Gijon. He was leaving Barcelona.

There was nothing about this that stood out, which is very much his way. The club president wasn’t there, the players weren’t there, and Enrique was not accompanied by his assistants. It was just him, the press officer Sergi Nogueras and the media, just like it always is after a game. The questions came and went, nothing remarkable, and then he looked sideways to confirm that he had been asked the last question. Nogueras nodded, so Enrique began.

“I won’t be Barcelona coach next season,” he said.

Looking up from their laptops, the journalists were caught out. It had been coming, just not yet, not now. Enrique had alerted the club in the summer that this might be his last, but while most expected him to leave – and there were plenty who desperately wanted him to – that conversation had not been made public. The club’s president had insisted that there was no Plan B for the bench just days earlier. They said that conversations had been scheduled for April.

“We were left open-mouthed,” admitted Barca midfielder Ivan Rakitic. He was the only player to talk – and there was no great rush to thank the coach, which was striking. The truth, bizarre though it may sound, is that few lamented the passing of a man who had won eight of 10 trophies since taking over in Catalonia.