Quique Setien has taken aim at Villarreal's board after his sacking this week.

Setien was axed just four weeks into the new season.

In a statement, the veteran coach declared: “It's never nice to get fired, but it's in my chosen profession. About the causes, fair and unfair, each one of us will interpret them as it suits us, so it doesn't matter. I always said that to do what you want you have to buy a club, and this is not mine.

"The positive thing is that I have lived a new experience of life, of human relationships, of different behaviors, of emotions and of football and that is what remains. Now I think that I am more prepared than a year ago and, if I have more opportunities, everything will help us to do things better in the future.

"My goal is always to leave a good memory wherever I go and I am sure that I have achieved it, not because of the successes or failures that have no owner, but because of having worked honestly and treated those who depended on me well.

"I am grateful to Villarreal CF for giving me the opportunity to work for the club, and especially to all the employees who treated us on a day-to-day basis as if we were family.

"FORWARD VILLARREAL"