Koeman: “I ask Xavi for the support that I didn’t have”


“I could write a book about that year and four or five months at Barça. A lot of things happened to us.” This is how he reported ronald koeman, the former Barça coach, his tumultuous time at the Camp Nou, which ended with his dismissal on a plane on the way back from Vallecas last October. “No, I don’t feel like a coach who has failed. Far from it. If you win something, it’s not a failure,” he said, referring to the Copa del Rey that he won last season, the only title in the last three years.

“Barça’s situation is the same as mine. Changing a coach is not always something to be able to improve. It makes me very sad, I’m a culé, I’m still living in Barcelona. But I don’t want to make a single criticism. It’s the situation of the team, of the club. The only thing I ask is that you support Xavi. A coach is not the only culprit”, argued the coach in Sant Esteve Sesrovires during the presentation of the second edition of the Koeman Cup, a solidarity golf tournament that will take place on July 7 and 8 at the Barcelona Golf Club to raise funds for the ‘Cruyff Foundation’.

“Barça’s situation is the same as mine. Changing a coach is not always something to be able to improve. It makes me very sad, I’m a culé, I’m still living in Barcelona”

Koeman, former Barça coach

“I have not had the full support of the president, I hope he has learned from this. You have to give Xavi all the support, he is a legend, a very good coach, he is a person of the house. Nor is he to blame for Barça be in this situation”, argued the former Barça coach.

“Barça cannot sign the best players in the world, so this distance is greater. We have already seen it. Manchester City and Liverpool are much better. There is not a single culprit. It is not a question of a coach or a President. There are many reasons why the club is in this situation & rdquor ;, Koeman insisted, indicating that “he did not want to speak much out of respect for the club”.

“Barça cannot sign the best players in the world, so this distance is greater. We have already seen it. Manchester City and Liverpool are much better. There is not a single culprit”

Koeman, former Barça coach

In this sense, it has focused criticism on the management of laporta. It already assumes the “risk & rdquor; of any coach when things are not going well. “If things don’t work out the way the club thinks, they can kick you out. But I don’t like it when the president leaves doubts outwardly, speaking off the record or expressing doubts,” explained the coach, who from January will lead the national team the Netherlands. “Inside you can discuss and speak clearly, but outside you have to defend your coach. If you don’t support him, everything is more complicated.”

At no time, and despite being asked three times, Koeman said he regretted having made the decision to sit on the bench at the Camp Nou. “My dream was to be the coach of Barça and I have achieved it,” said the coach, admitting that Xavi “surely has improved in some things” the work he had done. “They have signed three strikers, but it is not good to compare. When I left, Barça was eight points behind and now it is almost double”, Koeman recalled, indicating that “Xavi’s task is just as complicated as the one I had , there is no need to lie. It is the situation of the club”.

“Surely with Xavi some things have improved. They have signed three strikers, but it is not good to compare. When I left, Barça was eight points behind and now it is almost double”

Koeman, former Barça coach

He did not pronounce his mythical phrase of “this is what there is”, but he did use the same formula as Xavi. “This is the reality of Barça today. We have to accept it and support it because Barça needs time to return to being who it has been. That’s why I ask for calm and support. It’s something long-term, we have to give confidence and support to coach & rdquor ;, has underlined the coach.

“I don’t want to get into this kind of thing anymore. I’ve said more than I wanted to. But that’s how I am. I can’t change. I have this mentality, I’m Dutch and I show my face, I expect the same from others,” he said. assured Koeman.

“Barça cannot sign the best in the world. This is the reality of Barça today. We have to accept it and support it because it takes time to return to being who it has been”

Koeman, former Barça manager

Later, the former coach has endorsed Xavi. “Being a coach of Barça is a very complicated task. Xavi knows what it means to be a coach. I ask for support and I wish him good luck, we are all Catalans and we want Barça to be at the top. It is a very difficult moment for the club. I am from Barça , this affection has not changed. Hopefully we can celebrate titles with Barça. If there are people like Xavi or Jordi Cruyff and young people who want to celebrate titles, all of us who are here want Barça to win”, he specified.

When asked if he would invite Laporta to the golf tournament, he had no doubts. “He is a patron of the Cruyff Foundation. A photo with him? Let me think! Yes, of course, there is no problem. But I like to say things as I feel them. If Barça wins, Laporta wins too”.

And of the book that he could write about that tumultuous time at Barça, he has not written a single line. Although it could start with “extremely difficult times due to the covid issue”, then it would have a second chapter where “there was no president for a while so I had to answer all kinds of questions”, then the third would turn “on no being able to sign players we wanted, in addition to the complicated fair play issue” and stopping, as the main knot of that work, in that “from one day to the next we are left without Leo Messi”, in addition to also losing “Griezmann on the last day of market”.

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I would not forget Koeman in that story Luuk de Jong. “I have been criticized a lot, but he has given Barça five or six points with goals in the last few minutes.” But what would not be known is if in that book he would recount everything that happened between Laporta and him, an experience that the former coach hopes the leader has learned so as not to repeat it with Xavi.


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