5 Potential replacements in the event that Barcelona sack Valverde

#3 Pablo Machin (Sevilla)

Machin's status is on the rise

One of the brightest young minds in Spanish football, Machin's status is clearly on the rise. The Soria-born manager had a nondescript playing career with CD Numancia where he only made 5 appearances before a knee injury forced him to retire.

His coaching career has been better though as after helping to maintain Numancia's Segunda status he moved on to Girona where he led the club to its first ever promotion to La Liga.

His brand of football; short passing, constant motion and lots of goals shocked the rest of the league as he led his unfancied Blanquivermell (White and Reds) to tenth place in it's first ever La Liga season.

He moved to Sevilla at the end of the season and has rejigged the side to great effect. El Grande de Andalucia (The Great of Andalusia) have been the standout side in the league so far sitting pretty on top of the table and playing amazing attacking football.

Machine's favoured 3-4-2-1 formation is one that is switched to 5-2-2-1 once the team loses the ball. What this means is that he seeks to close down the central areas and deny the opposition space to play. This then allows them to attack through lightning-fast counter-attacks.

This makes him perfect for Barcelona as he will be able to get the team playing at a level close to that of the Guardiola era.

Under him, players who looked crappy under Vicenzo Montella have been on fire. The likes of Pablo Sarabia, Franco Vasquez and Daniel Carrico have been performing at a very high level. Even new players like Andre Silva and Tomas Vaclik have looked brilliant in Machin's system.

Sevilla will be loath to lose another manager in a similar vein to Jorge Sampaoli but if Bartomeu decides that Machin is the man for Barca, Cules will be in for a wild ride.