Management Conflict Barcelona Save Ronald Koeman From Dismissal

Ronald Koeman (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The ongoing internal conflict in Barcelona's management is enough to save Ronald Koeman's chair from being threatened with dismissal, even though he made Las Blaugranas start the worst season in the Spanish League in 33 years.

This was further exacerbated by the humiliating defeat at the hands of Juventus in the Group G Champions League final 0-3 at Camp Nou, Tuesday, December 8 yesterday.

While Lionel Messi did not move, his eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals from the spot to back up Juve's victory, which in plain view should have threatened Koeman's fate even more if this were normal times.

However, because the Barcelona management has just left Josep Maria Bartomeu who resigned from the presidency and a new leader will be elected in the next two years, at least Koeman's fate is still safe.

Carlos Tusquets who served as interim president of Barcelona accompanied by a management committee, according to the club's statute is only allowed "to make important and essential decisions to maintain normal club activities and safeguard the greater interests".

Appointing and hiring managers is not part of the mandate of responsibility borne by the interim president as well as the management committee, whose main task is to run the club's operations until the next presidential election on January 24.

Tusquets has recently come under criticism - including from Koeman - for his public comments that Messi should have been sold in the transfer window last summer, but Koeman has certainly been saved from the strange situation that Barcelona's management are in.

Moreover, the Dutch coach is clearly still more fortunate than his predecessor Ernesto Valverde, who was sacked in January 2020 when Barcelona were top of the Spanish League standings and were still champions of the league for two consecutive seasons.

Then Valverde's replacement, Quique Setien, was also sacked after failing to defend the Spanish League title and was knocked out 2-8 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals, leaving his tenor in charge to just a few months.

Koeman arrived with a reputation that was far more resplendent in the eyes of the supporters, considering that he was the decisive goal scorer in Barcelona's victory in the 1992 Champions Cup.

However, that reputation is in contrast to 180 degrees if you look at the results achieved by Barcelona under his tenor, which if compared to his two predecessors would look very bad.

Four defeats from 10 games in the Spanish league this season put Barcelona 12 points adrift of the top of the table currently occupied by Atletico Madrid.

Then yesterday's defeat against Juve made Barca fail to top their Champions League group stage for the first time since 2006/07.

Koeman, now has less than two months to reverse his fortune and foster confidence so that the figure elected to the presidency of Barcelona will continue to guarantee his job on the edge of the Las Blaugranas field, according to Reuters from Antara.