SportsBarca President Confirms Ronald Koeman Continues As Manager

Barca President Confirms Ronald Koeman Continues As Manager

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BEVERLY HILLS, June 04, (THEWILL) – The whirlwind of managerial turnover that has been witnessed at some of the biggest clubs in European football, such as La Liga’s Real Madrid, Serie A’s Inter Milan and Juventus, Bundesliga’s Bayern Munich, has spared Barcelona with the confirmation that manager Ronald Koeman will remain as club manager for another season.

This confirmation came courtesy of La Blaugrana President, Joan Laporta, who laid aside all speculation that the Dutchman could be out of job in the summer after a poor end to the 2020-21 campaign that saw the team’s title hopes collapse from an unfortunate series of disappointing results.

By way of full disclosure, Laporta admitted that he truly set out in search of a new manager to take the club in a new direction along the line that he believed they ought to be going but has now decided to keep faith with the 58-year-old for another campaign after positive talks were held.

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He made that much clear when he said: “After this period of reflection I want to announce that we have agreed to continue the contract that Ronald Koeman has in force. We are pleased with how the talks have gone and how we have unified criteria of what to do next season and an evaluation of what happened in the past.

“We are convinced that next season will be a great season for Barça. We had conversations to get to know each other well because I like to know the coach very well, as happened with Rijkaard or Guardiola.”

Earlier, it seemed Koeman had seen his last days at Camp Nou when the mathematical chance of Barca clinching the domestic title blew up in their faces with the team’s inability to get results against Granada and Levante. They had to watch their old boy, Luis Suarez, give the title to rivals Atletico Madrid.

Tabled to take Koeman’s place were familiar names such as Barca legend Xavi, Belgian national team coach Roberto Martinez and outgoing Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick, who is already set to replace outgoing German national team coach Joachim Low after the Euros.

With the blessing of Laporta, Koeman will set to begin the arduous task of making the team into a cohesive unit. A poor financial standing from the monetary indiscipline of the previous President and from the pandemic means the club is in no position to make big moves, and may have also been behind allowing Koeman remain as the cash-strapped club was in no financial position to invest heavily in a headliner manager.

Having settled for Koeman, attention will now turn to the squad reinforcements. Confirmed new players, defender Eric Garcia and forward Sergio Aguero, may be joined by Memphis Depay on a two to three-year contract, as the club looks to complete the move to get Liverpool’s Georginio Wijnaldum sign with Barca until 2024 once he is done the medicals.

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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.

Jude Obafemi, THEWILLhttps://thewillnews.com
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.

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