Former Barcelona midfielder speaks out against Koeman

Last season, when Barcelona was going through a lot of financial and on-field crises, one man was brave enough to take the role of the manager and that was Ronald Koeman. Koeman is a Barcelona legend and has a lot of managerial experience however, it was still extremely brave of him to take on a club that was in a terrible state and whose captain wanted to leave the club. Koeman managed to bring forth a lot of youth players and even win the Copa del Rey under a lot of financial strain. However, although he managed to place third in the league and won the Copa, he could not keep every player happy.

Miralem Pjanic says that Ronald Koeman disrespected him at Barcelona

Managers try to keep all of their players happy but it is just not possible. Players want game time and no one wants to play second fiddle. Yes, players love the club that they are playing for however if they are on the bench all the time, that love starts to fade as well. This was the case for Miralem Pjanic, the 31-year-old, who arrived from Juventus in September 2020. The player did make 30 appearances under Koeman but most of them were as substitutions and he was never part of the main team.

This made the player feel disrespected and thus he chose to leave the club in 2021. In a recent interview with Gazzetta, he explained his problems with Koeman. He said,

"“Koeman was disrespectful with me. Laporta made a great decision with Xavi, now Barça looks completely different.”_Source Fabrizio Romano"

He then went on to talk about the youngsters of the club. He praised Pedri for his beautiful vision and control of the ball, he compared the player to Andres Iniesta. Then, he talked about Gavi and said that since the first time he saw the player in training, he knew that the youngster was going to be special.

‘The outburst by Pjanic is not really justifiable since his game style did not fit Koeman. Every team has players who are benched and unfortunately at Barca, it had to be him. Koeman did a good job at Barca but now it is time for Xavi to shine.