Being a club legend, if he is, doesn’t give Ronald Koeman a free pass at Barcelona. Far from it, in fact.
For someone who will always be associated with the Blaugranes for that sensational free kick at Wembley, he should know better than most what works for the club in terms of their training and what doesn’t.
Similarly, when things don’t work out, you need to be level-headed enough, rather than bloody-minded, to turn things around.
I haven’t seen much of that in any of the games the Dutchman has taken over this season.
He’s certainly not a tactical genius either from the evidence he’s already provided us with, though should that really surprise us?
In all the clubs he’s been to, in general, his tenures have been terribly boring. That’s probably a pretty fitting description for Barca right now, uninspired.
When they need guidance from the bank, it seems sadly lacking. When the team needs to refresh itself, the same few players enter the same positions.
Football by numbers if you prefer, and that is not Barça. Where is the spontaneity, the art …
Leo Messi, for his part, looks completely dejected and helpless every time he goes out on the pitch, dragging the team to ever greater heights when possible, along with Pedri who, again, must be given the applause for a composed performance.
The rumors continue to revolve around Messi. He will leave, he will stay, he will wait until the new president is installed before making his decision … so many questions.
Perhaps when the transfer window opens they will already receive an answer if Koeman has not acted well.
They constantly make us believe that Messi wants to see a younger team, but that it will be a challenge for honors.
This team is a far cry from that at the moment, and if Koeman is allowed to watch the season, the damage to the club could be irreparable.
When Victor Font announced that Koeman would go as soon as he was elected president, if that happened, the culers were divided in their honesty, coming to feel sorry for the Dutch coach.
It would be difficult to find someone who feels it now, and that is perhaps the biggest accusation against his reign to date.
No one would flinch if he was dispensed with for someone else’s sake.
That other, however, has to keep Messi in place as his priority, as long as it is not too late by then.