Ronald Koeman claims that he was not given as much time as Xavi Hernandez to succeed at Barcelona.
After a string of poor results, club president Joan Laporta fired Koeman in October, and Xavi was brought in from Al-Sadd to take his place.
After a period of silence since his departure, the 58-year-old coach spoke to the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad to explain what happened in Barcelona.
But he says it's still too painful for him to think about returning to the stadium where he once played.
"You won't see me at Camp Nou for a while because I can't do it yet." Because of this president ,I can't pretend nothing happened," said Koeman.
Koeman's responses Messi exit
He was particularly irritated that he was not given the same amount of time as Xavi to build a winning team, and he is clearly still perplexed by some of the mixed messages he witnessed during and after his time at the club.
"They didn't give me the time they gave to the new coach, Xavi," Koeman added.
"It's still a source of pain for me. I was working with a large number of injured players. Now that Pedri is back in shape, as is Ousmane Dembele, everything is falling into place." I agreed to the departure of some players at the request of the club's management in order to get the finances in order. But then you see someone being brought in for 55 million euros [Ferran Torres] shortly after letting Lionel Messi go.
Then you feel uncertain if there wasn't something else going on. Why was Messi forced to leave? "Every coach requires the board's time and patience. I would have liked to see the new signings as well "But I'm happy for the club and the players because things are looking up. It's great to see Frenkie de Jong playing traditional football; he has so much talent." Laporta had told me a thousand times that Xavi would not be his coach due to his lack of experience.
"But I was not Laporta's coach; I knew that from the start. We didn't get along after the elections. Above-the-shoulder support was lacking.
"It wasn't the money that was important to me. I really wanted to succeed as a coach at Barcelona, to do everything I could, but I realized Laporta wanted to get rid of me because he didn't appoint me."
Koeman has not taken on a new role since leaving Barcelona, and appears content to take a break from football for the time being.
"I've agreed with [agent] Rob Jansen that we'll look at the possibilities this summer and see if there's anything interesting, something nice," he said.
"But, for the time being, I am unconcerned. We'll see."
blogpay
Total Comments: 0