You’re very hard on yourself during your time at the Catalan club.
Yes, because I made lots of mistakes. From our very first contact, I would have done almost everything differently. I won’t give any examples, but I regret a lot of things that happened during that time, although they’ve helped me to learn and not repeat the same mistakes.

Your compatriot Marcelo Bielsa says that you learn more from failure. Do you feel like a better coach after leading Barcelona?
I do not. I felt better after coaching Newell’s. In Barcelona I just learned to live with stars, with the best in the world.

And that was more difficult?
No, the guys were exceptional. I had no problem.

It seems that you feel like you contributed nothing to the club. You even use the word ‘failure.’
Yes, of course. It would be logical to use the term failure. I went to a team that always won and didn’t win anything while I was there. The Supercopa is next to nothing for Barcelona.

What were you able to teach Messi during your time at Barcelona?
Nothing. Nothing at all. Not to him or to Barca. I didn’t make any mark on Barcelona, it was a blip in my career in terms of what I did as a coach.

In Barcelona you were not happy?
No. And I’m not being hard. I say what I feel. If you want me to lie, I will say it was a great time. If you want to mention something that I contributed, it was helping Alexis Sánchez find his form, but that’s a little thing…

From what you describe, going to Barcelona sounds like a mistake in your career. Why?
There was no time to think. What Guardiola said- when Barcelona calls there should be no hesitation. But what happens is that I blame myself. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Manchester, you do not think. But for me it could not work.