MADRID (AP) – With or without Lionel Messi, it turns out that Barcelona’s incoming coach, Ronald Koeman, obviously knows who won’t be on his team next season.
Among them are some key players from recent years, Luis Suarez, Arturo Vidal, Ivan Rakitic and Samuel Umtiti.
Neither the club nor the coach publicly stated who stayed and who left, however, the four players have already been informed that they were not part of Koeman’s plans.
His decomposition would be a component of the first team’s “deep” adjustments announced through the club after the end of his season through a humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
The goal also raised doubts about what would happen to Messi, who has been frank about some of the club’s poor decisions this season. But President Josep Bartomeu and Koeman said they were counting on the Argentine striker to stay. However, they admitted that it was mandatory to reorganize an aging team that left the club without a title for the first time since 2007-08.
The restructuring of the club began with the dismissal of coach Quique Setién within days of the defeat to Bayern, and new presidential elections were announced for March.
The Catalan radio station RAC1 said that Suarez was one of the first to receive a call from Koeman saying that it will no longer be used. The 33-year-old Uruguayan striker came to Barcelona from Liverpool in 2014 and helped the Spanish club win a series of titles, adding 4 Spanish leagues, 4 Copa del Reys and one Champions League. He has scored almost two hundred goals, in addition to 280 games with the club.
Among the players promoted as imaginable replacements of Suarez were Memphis Depay del Lyon and Lautaro Martínez of Inter Milan. Martin Braithwaite and the young Francisco Trinco are a position component of the team and are in a position to make a contribution to the attack.
Rakitic, 32, the Croatian midfielder who also arrived in 2014 after a long stint at Sevilla, also won a call from Koeman. Rakitic has been a normal opener over the years, but recently he hadn’t had as many minutes.
Young Dutchman Frenkie de Jong joined the club last year and Barcelona will also depend on Miralem Pjanic, who signed from Juventus in an industry involving Arthur.
Vidal, 33, was due to leave after only two years in Barcelona. The Chilean midfielder had played more than Rakitic, but he can also lose area with the arrival of Pjanic.
The fourth player to be ruled is Umtiti, a 26-year-old central defender who has suffered a series of injuries since arriving at Barcelona from Lyon in 2016. Clement Lenglet, regular starter in defence with Captain Gerard Piqué.
Piqué, 33, was the first to call for a primary restructuring of the club following the defeat to Bayern, and said that if necessary, he would be in a position to resign to help the club.
There were still doubts about the long history of Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Sergi Roberto.
The young people who have already contributed come with Ansu Fati and Riqui Puig, while Carls Alea will have to return after a transfer with Real Betis. Among the teenagers who join the club this season are Pedri, Matheus Fernandes and Gustavo Maia.
The team’s adjustments help Barcelona financially, as the club has been greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Barcelona finished the moment of Real Madrid in the Spanish league.
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