When Ronald Koeman accepted the FC Barcelona job in 2020, he was getting his dream job.

Unfortunately for the Dutch legend the timing has been pretty chaotic to say the least.

He’s been the one tasked with guiding the La Liga giants without the mercurial talent of Lionel Messi leading the line (Source – The Guardian).

Koeman was given the job by Josep Maria Bartomeu, a Barca President who wasn’t liked by the fans and who the players didn’t trust. That put Koeman on the back foot instantly.

During his first season in charge Koeman watched on as his side finished in third place in the league, seven points behind eventual winners Atletico Madrid. They were then soundly beaten by Messi’s future employers PSG in the round of 16 of the Champions League.

During previous tenures at the Nou Camp, managers wouldn’t have survived such a poor season. Yet there was little to no talk of Ronald Koeman departing Barca.

Now the simple reason is that the club can’t afford to get rid of their manager.

Barcelona are in such financial strife they simply can’t afford to dump Koeman. Even though his deal runs out next summer even then it could cost Barca and they might actually be better off to offer him a new deal (Source – Football Espana).

It’s extremely ironic that they couldn’t afford to keep Lionel Messi but cannot afford to sack Ronald Koeman.

Now to be fair to the manager, the fact that Barca have started so poorly isn’t really all down to him.

The whole club have been on a downer since Messi’s departure. The players that they’ve brought in aren’t quite in the same class as those that would bring titles to the club.

But you simply can’t get away from the fact that Barca are underperforming at the moment. They’re sitting in seventh place in La Liga, only winning twice in their first five outings. They’ve only scored eight goals and seven other teams have produced more strikes.

Koeman has already come out in the press asking the fans and media to show a bit of patience as he tries to get things right in Catalunya:

“The club is with me in this period of reconstruction. We have to reconstruct the team as a squad without making big investments and this takes time”

Via Sky Sports

Then there’s the looming spectre of Xavi. The former Barca midfielder has been linked with the club’s managerial hot-seat numerous times in recent years and that’s a boss that the fans want in charge of the club. Just yesterday Marca once again speculated that a deal could be done to get Xavi back to the Camp Nou.

That can be an issue with dreams, sometimes they turn into nightmares. Ronald Koeman might have been better placed saying with the Netherlands and waiting that bit longer for the Barca job. He’ll get very little thanks if he actually does a good job of just keeping things steady as Barcelona try and get through this financial mess.

Posted on September 24th, 2021 by scott
Filed under: Article