Swedish legend condemns Barcelona’s treatment of Ronald Koeman
Barcelona currently have one of their evergreen legends as their manager however, before they appointed Xavi Hernandez, as the main coach, Ronald Koeman was at the helm of the boat. The Dutch manager took over the job after Quique Setien was sacked for losing 8-2 to Bayern Munich. The Catalans were at a very bad place, financially, on the pitch and mentally. Koeman took over a club that was financially and physically exhausted and he made do with what he had. However, he did much better than what people expected of him but he was sacked in his second season and Swedish legend, Henrick Larsson, believes that Barca treated him unfairly.
Former Barcelona coach says Ronald Koeman was treated unfairly
The former Swedish striker who played for Barca in his career, was a coach for Koeman at the Catalan side. In an interview with fotbollskanalen, he talked about his time working under Koeman and he mentioned that things were good at the start of the season but got tough as it progressed. Still, bad phases are part of a team in a rebuild, but after there was a change in presidency, the support from the board declined. He said in the interview,
"“After that we felt that there was less support from upstairs, after Laporta became president. And that is how it continued until the summer. We went on our summer holidays and I didn’t know whether I would carry on the following season.”“We got a decision on that very late. That’s a shame. For me it doesn’t matter too much but to treat Ronald Koeman like that, he did not deserve that.”_Source Goal"
Larrson went on to say that there was never any clear indication from the hierarchy and they were not given a proper plan about their future. In front of the media Laporta always claimed that he had Koeman’s back however, behind the scenes it seems like the story was wildly different. Both Koeman and Larson feels like they were ill-treated however, nothing can be done now. The current team is performing well under Xavi and while we do have to thank the Dutch manager for his efforts, we must also look into the future and not dwell on the past.
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