The Dutchman has openly fired shots at President Joan Laporta for facilitating club legend’s Lionel Messi departure in the summer. Ronald Koeman also mentioned that the club’s president Joan Laporta was unwilling to give him the time to change things around this season.
Speaking for the first time publicly since being unceremoniously sacked as head coach of the Blaugrana, Koeman has questioned Barcelona’s 55 million euro signing of Ferran Torres following everything that took place in the summer transfer window.
Barcelona had to cut their ties with club legend Messi who arrived to the club as a 13-year-old and went on to become one of the greatest footballers of all time, bringing silverware after silverware for the Catalan club.
Despite showing confidence of Messi’s contract being renewed throughout the summer, Laporta made a last-minute U-turn as Barcelona claimed they would be unable to accommodate Messi in their reduced salary cap according to La Liga rules. As a result, the Argentine megastar joined Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer, playing for another professional football club for the first time in his life.
Koeman has also raised questions surrounding the expensive signing of Spanish forward Ferran Torres from Manchester City.
“It was at the insistence of the club’s hierarchy that I agreed to the departure of certain players to help put the finances in order.”
“But then when you see that they sign someone for €55m shortly after letting Messi go, it makes you wonder if something else was happening. Why did Messi have to leave?”
Koeman told the Dutch newspaper AD.
Messi’s departure wasn’t the only high-profile summer exit for Barcelona this time around. They also agreed on a last-minute loan deal for Antoine Griezmann on Deadline Day. The departures affected Barcelona’s season and following a poor string of results, Koeman was sacked and replaced with former Barcelona player Xavi Hernandez.
Life has gotten for Barcelona fans under Xavi as the Spanish giants have risen from the ninth position to fourth in La Liga and are playing with style and confidence. They also demolished Napoli away from home in the Europa League.
