Future of Ronald Koeman at Barcelona

Ronald Koeman’s future at Barcelona is one of the most hottest topics in social media these days. The former Netherland manager couldn’t deliver as all the cules expected during past 2 years as the Blaugrana manager.

On 19th of August 2020, Bartomeu’s board announced Ronald Koeman as the manager of FC Barcelona, until 30th of June 2022 on a two-year contract. He was the successor of Quique Setién who had been dismissed after the 8-2 humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich in the 19-20 Champions League quarter-final.

Koeman was very eager to join his former club FC Barcelona and he even paid the release clause with his own money. Since he joined in the middle of the season, there was not a lot of expectations of trophies and rightfully so, as his first phase as the manager wasn’t impressive by any means. But somehow Blaugranas managed to bounce back after a lot of ups and downs and even had a very good chance to win the 20-21 Laliga trophy, if not for a bit of last minute bottling that we’re sadly getting used to expect from Barcelona. In the end, Koeman and his team ended the season only with the CDR trophy and as the 2nd runner up of Laliga.

📂 Fc Barcelona 💙❤️
📂 CDR Champions 🏆

A Picture Thread :- pic.twitter.com/WnBoVl3Ng5
— мαѕнσσ∂ 🎨 (@hq4u10) April 18, 2021

Though we all had high hopes for the new 21-22 season, they were instantly squashed when the club had to go through one of the worst summer transfer windows in history due to financial issues and was forced to let go of their best player of all time, Lionel Messi and some other crucial players as well, like Antoine Griezmann, Trincao, Pjanic and the list goes on. To make amends, Koeman chose to rely on players from his homeland as went he signed Dutch players, Memphis Depay and Luuk De Jong. He also tried to sign fellow Dutchman Georginio Wijnaldum but failed to do so, due to a last minute sweep from PSG.

It was also common knowledge that there was a cold war going on in between Koeman and Barcelona President Joan Laporta but things got heated up after a bizzare and rather pompous statement from Koeman just before the match against Cadiz.

“Thanks to me, this club has a future.”

Statement: https://www.sport.es/en/news/barca/ronald-koeman-thanks-to-me-this-club-has-a-future-12072151

🎙 [SPORT] | Joan Laporta: "We found out at the last minute that Koeman intended to make this statement [press], he has the obligation to attend press conferences and is very free to answer questions or express as he considers." pic.twitter.com/wJxsYcy5oG
— BarçaTimes (@BarcaTimes) September 22, 2021

✅ The players in the locker room were unfazed by Koeman's statement yesterday. The captains reassured Laporta that they're convinced they can win a title this season. "We are going for LaLiga"was the overwhelming response (via @fansjavimiguel) pic.twitter.com/AwQnLA4c8N
— FCBarcelonaFl (@FCBarcelonaFl) September 23, 2021

After this controversial statement, Barcelona drew 0-0 against Cadiz and 1-1 against Granada solely thanks to an impressive solo performance and a bullet header by La Masia youngster Ronald Araujo. Then Barcelona were thrashed at the UCL group stage match opening match by Bayern Munich yet again at Camp Nou with the Blaugranas not being able to register a single shot on target for the first time in UEFA Champions League history, putting Koemans job in serious jeopardy.

The 3-0 win against Levante last week brought a fresh belief to all the cules as it was an all round impressive performance but that was immeidately squashed when Benfica, of all teams, humiliated FC Barcelona in yesterday’s UCL group stage match scoring three goals to nil with Barcelona once again faling to hit the mark in this seasons Chmpions league.

During the past few weeks, multiple reports and sources stated that Koeman’s departure is already on the table but due to two main reasons it’s still not confirmed.

1. According to reports Barca has to pay around 13 mil euros to sack Koeman

2. There’s no proper replacement identified yet to be the successor of Koeman

Several sources reporting some big names who have the potential to take over Barcelona and names like Xavi, Andrea Pirlo, Roberto Martinez, Antonio Conte, Philip Cocu and Joachim Lowe have been popping up in reports.

But still, nothing is confirmed yet and most likely Koeman is expected to remain as the Barca coach for the match against defending champions Athletico at the Wanda, especially after all the players adamantly defended the coach after the champions league match.

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Barcelona are looking for new manager and the current plan is to change - it could take some days. Process started with the whole board involved. Talking with many different candidates to replace Ronald Koeman. 🔴 #FCB #Barça
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 30, 2021

🎙[ @Jordigil-Sport] | Luis Suarez: “The war between Koeman and Laporta hurts the players.” 💣💣🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/XAMI5FGHNF
— BarçaTimes (@BarcaTimes) September 30, 2021