Ronald Koeman has questioned Barcelona‘s motives for letting Lionel Messi leave last summer and said president Joan Laporta did not give him the time he deserved to turn things around.
Speaking for the first time since being sacked as Barca boss in October, Koeman said he was surprised at seeing Ferran Torres join the club for €55 million in January after he was forced to let several players leave during his tenure, most notably Messi.
The Argentina international joined Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer last August because Barca could not afford to renew his contract.
“It was at the insistence of the club’s hierarchy that I agreed to the departure of certain players to help put the finances in order,” Koeman told the Dutch newspaper AD.
“But then when you see that they sign someone for €55m shortly after letting Messi go, it makes you wonder if something else was happening. Why did Messi have to leave?”
Barca have improved since Koeman was replaced by Xavi Hernandez, rising from ninth in LaLiga to fourth and a Champions League spot. However, they have also been knocked out of the Champions League, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Supercopa in that time.
As well as Torres, Xavi has benefitted from the January arrivals of Dani Alves, Adama Traore and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, while other key players have returned from long-term injuries since he was appointed.
As a result, Barca, who scored four goals in four different games in February, are now unbeaten in 10 league games and have progressed to the Europa League round-of-16, where they will face Galatasaray.
“Barcelona didn’t give me the same time as Xavi,” Koeman said. “It is still painful for me. I was working with many injured players. Now Pedri is back in shape. Ousmane Dembele‘s back. Every coach needs time and patience from the board.
“Laporta told me a thousand times that Xavi would not be his coach because he lacked experience. But I was not Laporta’s coach. I had that feeling from the first moment. After he was elected [in March] there was no click. There was a lack of the necessary support from above.
“I really wanted to succeed at Barcelona, but I realised that Laporta wanted to get rid of me because I was not appointed by him. You won’t see me at Camp Nou for a while, I can’t do that yet. With this president, I can’t pretend that nothing happened.”
Koeman, who was a legend at Barca as a player and scored the winning goal in the European Cup final in 1992, returned to the club as coach in the summer of 2020 following the 8-2 humiliation against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
During his time in charge, he oversaw the departure of many players, including Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic, Antoine Griezmann and Messi, among others, due to the club’s financial problems.
In his first season in charge, he led the club to a Copa del Rey trophy and a third-place finish in LaLiga. But he was sacked just 10 games into this year’s campaign after a 1-0 defeat at Rayo Vallecano left Barca ninth in the table with just 15 points.
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