Former Barcelona player, coach and icon Ronald Koeman left with a bitter taste in his mouth from his spell on the bench, and it appears he still has a few gripes to air too.
The Dutch manager was sacked by Joan Laporta in November of 2021, with Barcelona all but out of the Champions League and sitting ninth in La Liga. However Koeman feels he was harshly dismissed, due to the lack of resources.
In interview with Andy van der Meijde, covered by Sport, Koeman admitted that while Barcelona are playing well under Xavi Hernandez, the current manager has it easier than he did.
“Barça are doing very well. I saw Barcelona vs Real Madrid, they played incredible football. They were so good.”
“They facilitated his [Xavi’s] work.”
“It depends on the quality of the squad. During my time that was different.”
During the summer where Koeman and Laporta coincided, Barcelona lost the likes of Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann, replacing them with Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay and Luuk de Jong.
“After what happened with the president, I’m don’t go to Camp Nou these days.”
Koeman also implied that he did not think much of Barcelona veteran Sergi Roberto, who is now a vice-captain at the club. He was surprised that Barcelona let Sergino Dest went on loan to Milan, having only spent one season at Camp Nou, while Roberto stayed.
“Dest is no worse than Sergi Roberto. I didn’t understand it.”
Xavi clearly did not take a liking to Dest, leaving him on the bench for the majority of his first season, before choosing to send him on loan this season. Roberto has been unfit for parts of this season, but on the whole has performed well under Xavi.
fammnpsuyz
0
Koeman not a Spaniard. So...
BabaYaga2312
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lol wasn’t Koeman the one who kept playing Roberto when he just came back from injury ??
chitundukauzi
1
you've spoken well, you did deserved better. However Lapoter did give you a chance and things did not go as was expected. the players lacked confidence, even when you had Messi things still did go your way, not that it was your fault, no. The players need motivation more than tactics. they need to believe they can still compete. There were also good players you did not include in the team but put in waste. So in my opinion in terms of team selection...you managers have players that prefer even when they are not better than the right person, but in end, all we want are results. Xavi has only one considered among the best players in the world and yet things are working ok for him. One thing they have is that they are motivated by the desire to win, and they believe in themselves.
culer1
1
This man is our legend but i don't understand why he turned to be sooo jealousy at xavi
Messisuuuui
3
Thanke you Koeman fore this Beast
Garryt
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Yes Ronald Koeman is correct 100% how can you loan a player like Dest, Barca made a very big mistakes about selling and loaning young player then bring old players
Xavi couldn't get the most out of dest that's why he was sold and Barca needed money. If you look at the system Xavi uses now, you can see that majority of the time someone who is more defensively adept plays at RB. Other times it's Roberto because he makes inverted runs. These are things that dest couldn't do and would need time to learn.
Shauny300
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Yes Ronald Koeman is correct 100% how can you loan a player like Dest, Barca made a very big mistakes about selling and loaning young player then bring old players
Milan literally left him out of their UCL & he barely plays there that should tell u alot
biblo2
1
Yes Ronald Koeman is correct 100% how can you loan a player like Dest, Barca made a very big mistakes about selling and loaning young player then bring old players
noaaiknosu
1
The first manager to loose three el-classico shut up what are u talking about worse coach in barca history ever. Even with Leo at your disposal you keep losing matches especially El-classico...
Mamadiopy
2
He deserves respect for bringing the young lads but gosh he should rest already , he was worse
mupaekmnot
2
No any good coach would sell all their star and exprience players and now play the younger one
mupaekmnot
2
You make a mistake then by letting all the big and star players to go and leave messi alone, I guess you do that to safe yourself from blame for the first season, I can’t imagine you to set a young and future team at that time, all that you left messi to play with are too young and inexperienced to play with messi. A lot that they cannot do when messi pass them to do and messi will quickly do it for Barcelona to safe the game, you sold messi but nothing was seen from all that he played with then all left behind
pium
1
In 19/20 season Koeman made good run till 32nd round. Many veterans were injured and their young replacements Araujo and Dest were doing exceptionally well compared tho those veterans. But Koeman decided to get veterans (including sergi Roberto) to starting XI right away from game week 33 and we only collected 8 points out of possible 18 with only hard opposition was Atletico Madrid. We lost the league by 8 points. If those veterans were injured we could have even won the league. So Koeman has to bare some blame for himself. He even played Sergi Roberto at Central Defence 🫠🫠 As a STARTER!!! With Araujo on the Bench!!!!
Bobbycentury
2
Koeman tried with the worst Barcelona squad, without him we won’t have pedri,gavi, balde?nico and abde all these players have now grown to be class , i think he deserves some respect