BarcelonaNew script in the series on the Barça bench. Joan Laporta surprised Madrid by stating to the press before the board lunch with Atlético de Madrid that “Ronald Koeman will continue to be Barça’s coach, he deserves a margin of confidence”. Barça, after losing to Lisbon and winning one of the last four games, visit the reigning champions, Atlético de Madrid, tonight (9pm / Movistar La Liga). The coach and the president met this morning at the Joan Gamper Sports City before leaving for Madrid, a conversation that has served to decide the continuity of the coach.
Laporta has been looking for a coach to take the place of the Dutch coach, whose club sources claimed he was “sentenced”, but today he took the helm by defending that Koeman will continue for at least a few more days. “When the injured recover we will have more room, Koeman is a Catalan and a reference for Barcelona. I have talked to him, I have drawn my conclusions, I really appreciate him taking on Barça in a difficult time. He may have had moments of discouragement but he has regained his spirits and deserves this margin of confidence. ” Laporta has denied that the relationship with the Dutchman is cold. He said: “She is good and sincere. She is a good person, he thinks the same of me and we are all trying to turn this around for the better.” Much of Laporta’s Praetorian Guard has tried to convince him to sign Xavi Hernández, but the president wanted other names to take the bench. With no agreement on who should be the replacement, for now Koeman will continue, after receiving support from Laporta.
Dance of names
The relationship between them already began with some tension, when Koeman understood that he was not guaranteed to be the coach at the start of the season. Laporta ended up betting on him, but as neither the results nor the game have been as expected, club sources have confirmed that a replacement was being sought. After falling to Lisbon 3-0 against Benfica, Laporta met at the Ciutat Esportiva de Sant Joan Despí until four in the morning with the football director, Mateu Alemany; the vice-president of sports, Rafael Yuste, and the adviser of the directive in sport subjects, Enric Masip. On the table, decide the name of the future coach and the ideal time to do so. He had to be at the selection stop this week, to be able to execute a change that offered image of renewal before the assembly of compromising partners on October 17. Within the club, however, there is no agreement on who this coach should be. And some of those Laporta sees with good eyes have very high contracts or financial pretensions. The last name that has sounded is that of Ajax coach Erik ten Hag, who does not want to leave the Dutch club. The Catalan Robert Martínez, a good friend of Jordi Cruyff, has a contract with the Belgian national team, which is facing the final phase of the League of Nations and is in the middle of qualifying for the World Cup. Italian Andrea Pirlo, one of the other options, did not have a good debut on the bench with Juve, where he had a high enough salary. And Xavi, who would be willing to leave Qatar to return home, is not the priority of a Laporta who, for now, has ratified Koeman before a key match.
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