Bartomeu: Valverde is the coach Barcelona want, we're only halfway through a big project Barcelona Wants Valverde to stay as coach

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has insisted that Ernesto Valverde is the man to take the club forward.

There have been calls for the Spanish coach to be sacked after Barcelona's humiliating Champions League exit at the hands of Liverpool.

However, Bartomeu has voiced his support for the under-fire coach.

"The planning for next season is already underway, and has been for some time," Bartomeu said at the launch of the 'Kubala' book.

"Some players have already signed and we'll keep having talks after the [Copa del Rey] final.

"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."

Valverde could end up guiding the Catalan club to a second successive domestic double if Barcelona beat Valencia in the Copa del Rey final on 25 May.

"[The final] isn't the deciding factor [on whether Valverde stays]," Bartomeu said. "The main objective is the league and then we want the Copa or the Champions League.

"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 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."

Barcelona's women's team face Lyon in the Women's Champions League final in Budapest on Saturday looking to win the tournament for the first time.

"To get to a Champions League final, where women's football has improved so much in the last five years, is a job well done," Bartomeu said.

"It's been an objective that has been completed before we had anticipated. We want the club to grow in stature, have success and that [the final] is a hard-fought match in Kubala's native country."