Luis Enrique appointed to Barcelona's hot seat

Barcelona has appointed Spaniard Luis Enrique as their coach for the up coming La Liga season.

In a statement from the team's website:

The FC Barcelona Board of Directors have this evening confirmed  Luis Enrique Martíneza the new first team coach, following a proposal from Sporting Director Andoni Zubizarreta. Luis Enrique, 44 , will sign a two year deal.

This comes after Gerardo Martino stepped down from the Barcelona hot seat after just one disappointing season in charge of the Catalan outfit.

Managerial record

While he might not have the same managerial cache as Jose Mourinho or Manchester United's newly appointed manager, Louis Van Gaal, but he is not an unknown quantity.

He led Spanish side Celta Vigo to a respectable ninth position in the La Liga last season. This represents a massive improvement from the 2012/2013 season where Celta Vigo just managed to avoid relegation by finishing in 17th place.

Before that he spent a year as the coach of Roma, finishing in seventh place in the Italian Serie A.

He kick-started his managerial career at the Barcelona B team, taking over from his friend and former team mate, the mercurial Pep Guardiola.

Following in Guardiola footsteps?

When Guardiola was appointed as manager of Barcelona in 2008, he was a gamble of sorts as the only experience he had before that was as coach of the Barcelona B team.

But as history would attest, that gamble paid off handsomely for Barcelona.

So perhaps Barcelona's board of directors are hoping that history would repeat itself with Enrique's appointment.

Tell us how you think Enrique will fare in the upcoming season.

Do you think Barcelona will be as dominant as they were when they were under Guardiola?

Source: Barcelona official website.