The FC Barcelona coach, Ronald Koeman, gave an interview this week in which he talked about everything and referred to what his future will be like in the Catalan team, which is still going through the first months after Lionel Messi left Paris Saint- Germain (PSG). Against this background, the Dutchman was calm and confident in the face of the challenges ahead this season.
The technician spoke with the NOS chain of his country in a talk of which some fragments were known this Sunday. One of the topics he touched on was how he lived with the current president of the club, who did not hire him, but decided to respect his contract that ends in June 2022: “My relationship with Laporta has improved, but last week something happened that I think… it’s not right. I was suggesting that the coach doesn’t have all the power. I talk too much”.
Despite the friction he had in recent days, Koeman insisted that he has a constant dialogue and this is key to his performance: “I think you always have to create clarity. When you, as a club, let things work a bit and you are not clear about the future of a coach, then there is speculation. And if it is you who is the coach, then things are not pleasant.
In this sense, he was asked if he looked beyond that deadline with a possible renewal and it was there that he did not hesitate: “I’m open to staying, I’m having a good time.” It is worth remembering that his arrival in the Blaugrana cast was in 2019 by decision of Josep Maria Bartomeu, who was then the president. Since then, the Dutchman has had to endure on the substitute bench that several figures left him, including Luis Suárez, Ivan Rakitic, Antoine Griezmann, and the most resonant of course, Lionel Messi. But despite all this, Koeman maintains: “Thanks to me, this club has a future.”
Barcelona’s challenges are to be able to win titles, be it the King’s Cup, La Liga or the Champions League, where they share a group with Bayern Munich, Benfica and Dinamo Kiev. In the domestic competition, the team has won two games and tied the remaining one in its three presentations, so the coach trusts that if he recovers all the injured players (Ansu Fati, Dembélé, Agüero and Braithwaite, among others) his team will fight on the field: “If we have everyone available, we will really compete for the championship.”
For this season, Barcelona has added reinforcements such as Memphis Depay, Sergio Agüero, Eric García and Luuk De Jong, who must join the team as quickly as possible to find the desired level as soon as possible, if one takes into account that the debut It will be against Bayern Munich this Tuesday with the fresh memory of the 8-2 they suffered in 2018. (Infobae)
Ronald Koeman: “Thanks to me, this club has a future”
