So, Ronald Koeman is out. There’s very little satisfaction in writing, “I told you so!” But I did.
Defeat to Real Madrid in the Clasico was just the latest in a long line of evidence that suggested that not only was this legendary Dutchman not the man for the job, but that he hadn’t been the right man for some months.
After the Clasico, this column was dedicated to how not only was Koeman failing to improve Barcelona’s impoverished performances he was failing to teach or improve various players around his squad, putting some of their developments in danger.
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A headless chicken defeat duly followed a couple of days after the defeat to Madrid as Rayo Vallecano, veritably a David slaying Goliath (for the first time in two decades) humiliated Koeman, and his team, for a final time. The coup de grace.
And finally club president Joan Laporta acted. There are several key conclusions.
The first is that this decision has been dragged out since May, when it should have been taken, and the Camp Nou board’s “caught in the headlights” inertia will end up costing Barcelona many millions of Euros when they have, literally, never been less able to cope with that setback.
It’s not just my opinion, either. Last spring, senior players around the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper training ground were muttering to one another that they simply didn’t believe that this version of Koeman, 58, hidebound by old tactical ideas, manacled to the club because they didn’t want to pay for his sacking, would win them LaLiga or the Champions League. And, remember, they were saying this not many weeks after winning the Copa del Rey together.
I include Lionel Messi in the group of those who appreciated Koeman’s ideas about how to imbue life into Barcelona’s 2020-21 season, having been handed the reins at a horrible time, but who had lost faith in either his ideas, his tactics, the (lack of)…
Source : espn
