On Monday night, after overseeing Barcelona training for the final time that morning, Ernesto Valverde changed into his cycling gear, dusted down his bike and hit the road. He was still officially the Barca manager, but the club's president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, had already informed him his time was up. Now, Valverde just wanted to be away from it all.

Meanwhile, across the city, Quique Setien, Valverde's soon-to-be replacement, was animatedly moving glasses around a table. Each glass represented a footballer. "We are going to have a lot of fun," he said many times. Sources told ESPN that the former Real Betis coach was so excited about the possibilities that he was still discussing his ideas well after midnight, at which time Barca's representatives joked he should go home and sleep.

Setien, a devout disciple of Johan Cruyff's approach to the game, was explaining to the Barca hierarchy his blueprint to reignite a side that had stagnated. They still sat top of the league, but they had grown overreliant on Lionel Messi. Around him, player performance was getting worse and none of the club's expensive signings -- like Philippe Coutinho (on loan at Bayern Munich), Ousmane Dembele (injured) and Antoine Griezmann (being played out of position) -- had lived up to their price tags.

The new coach's challenge is no small feat. Cruyff may not have been much more successful than Valverde and Luis Enrique, who won 13 trophies between them, but he left more of a mark.

"I only guarantee one thing when I take over a new club: that we play good football," Setien said Tuesday at his presentation.

When Barca finally made the official announcement that Valverde was out, shortly before midnight local time on Monday, it did not come as a shock to many. The appointment of Setien, a 61-year-old whose biggest achievement to date is finishing sixth in La Liga with Betis, did raise some eyebrows, though.

When time finally ran out for Valverde

The tide had been turning against Valverde for months, but it was the 2-2 draw against Espanyol on Jan. 4 when Bartomeu finally began to accept that change was needed. Sources have told ESPN that just minutes after the final whistle, the president issued an ultimatum to his closest confidants: if the team don't put on an improved showing in the Spanish Supercopa against Atletico Madrid, they needed to replace the manager.

Ernesto Valverde was dismissed as Barcelona manager following the club's Spanish Supercopa loss to Atletico Madrid. AP Photo/Hassan Ammar

Barcelona eventually played one of their best games of the season against Atletico in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 9, but despite leading 2-1 they eventually lost 3-2 after two Atleti goals in the final nine minutes. For senior officials at the club, the game evoked memories of two damaging recent losses: those dreadful nights against AS Roma and Liverpool in the Champions League.

According to sources, Barcelona had been sounding out possible managers for a while, already planning to replace Valverde in the summer. But defeat in the Supercopa hastened those plans considerably, which was unfortunate for the embattled manager given the circumstances around the club when he arrived and the hand he was dealt.

Valverde took over from Luis Enrique in 2017 and immediately had to deal with Neymar's departure. He could do nothing to stop the Brazilian leaving once Paris Saint-Germain paid his €222 million release clause. Barca were then steamrolled by Real Madrid in the Spanish Supercopa that year, leading Gerard Pique to lament that he felt "inferior" to their Clasico rivals for the first time since he rejoined the club from Manchester United in 2008.

- Bojan on Valverde sacking: 'Not enough' to just be competitive

- Who are the favourites to win La Liga?

- Who is Barcelona's new manager, Quique Setien?

Yet those feelings didn't last long. Valverde ended the 2017-18 season with a league and cup double and followed that up with another league title in 2018-19. But back-to-back humiliating Champions League exits at the hands of Roma and Liverpool, along with a Copa del Rey final loss to Valencia, left many people inside the club pushing for him to be sacked last summer.

Sources told ESPN that the sporting director at the time, Pep Segura, put Thierry Henry's name forward for the job. Other board members canvassed for Roberto Martinez, with Setien's name appearing somewhere on their list. But Bartomeu stuck by Valverde for two reasons: one, he still had the support of the players, and two, he wasn't convinced at the time by the alternatives.

Since then, results had been OK, but sources explain that Bartomeu had grown increasingly concerned about the team's "image" on the pitch. Every disappointing display was another nail in Valverde's coffin, every dropped point his fault. Purists hammered him for the team's style, complaining that Barcelona do not play like Barcelona even when they win.

Bartomeu, increasingly alone in his support of Valverde, finally changed his mind after those dropped points against their crosstown rivals, Espanyol. Sources tell ESPN he sanctioned sporting director Eric Abidal to step up the search for a replacement, and by the time Atletico scored two late goals to knock Barca out of the revamped Supercopa at the semifinal stage, Bartomeu decided enough was enough.

Barcelona's Spanish Supercopa defeat was enough to convince club president Josep Bartomeu to make a change in the dugout. LLUIS GENE/AFP via Getty Images

The president met with several players after that game in Jeddah to inform them of his plans. Sources explain that Valverde remained well liked by the squad, but two factions had developed: those who supported him almost unconditionally and those who thought the training wasn't intense enough and his style was a little too hands-off. The likes of Messi and Pique were in the first camp, both players posting messages of gratitude since Valverde's dismissal. Some of the younger players and the new signings were in the second camp.

Ansu Fati, who was handed his debut this season aged 16, was one of the more emotional members of the squad when a teary-eyed Valverde finally said farewell on Tuesday. Sources tell ESPN that Valverde requested a one-on-one chat with the youngster before leaving, telling him to continue in the same way he'd burst into the first-team picture, but while keeping himself grounded and not changing his approach to the game.

The succession plan

The day after the Atletico defeat -- and very publicly -- Abidal and CEO Oscar Grau traveled from Saudi Arabia to Qatar to see Xavi, Barca's legendary former midfielder and now the coach of Al-Sadd. They met him three times in Doha. Not only did the club's board see him as well equipped to take over, but they also saw him as a useful political tool. Xavi is closely aligned with Victor Font, who will run to become the club's next president in the 2021 elections.