Barcelona Names Sergi Barjuan as Interim Coach, Koeman Fired

With their reserves depleted and a critical Champions League match on the horizon for Barcelona, the football club was looking for a replacement manager on Thursday, October 28^th, 2021 following the firing of Ronald Koeman. Barca recently named Sergi Barjuan as their interim manager, also known as the caretaker coach.

The Spanish football club said that their reserve team head coach Barjuan will temporarily lead Barca in to battle until Barcelona selects their permanent replacement for the recently canned Koeman. Barjuan is a former Barcelona defender, and the football club stated that Sergi will be on the sidelines for Blaugrana for their critical date with Alavesthis Saturday, October 30^th, 2021 in the Spanish League.

Replacements for Ronald Koeman as Head Coach of FC Barcelona

Former Barca mid – fielder, Xavi Hernández, who for some time now has been identified as a possible head coaching candidate to a return to the once great organization that Hernandez previously helped rise to its glory days and greatest heights when he was a player for the Spanish football club. Xavi is apparently the leading nominee to take over on a full – time basis as the manager of Barcelona. However, first the 41 – year – old Hernandez would have to free himself from his job coaching Al Sadd which is a Qatari football club.

Next week, FC Barcelona has a trip to Ukraine to play Dynamo Kyiv in a contest that Barca will have to win in order to boost their possibility of continuing their 2 – decade long stretch of reaching the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

Ronald Koeman’s Excuses for Barcelona’s Troubled Season

Koeman had to justify the embarrassing losses to Bayern Munich, Benfica, Atlético Madrid, and Real Madrid this season by arguing that his squad was simply not a strong force anymore amongst Europe’s elite powerhouse organizations after its financial troubles forced Barcelona to let go of their biggest on the field asset in the international superstar and one of the greatest of all – time footballers, Lionel Messi, as well as some other various top football talents.

Ronald also claimed that injuries mostly associated with Koeman’s forwards / attacking players had limited or greatly reduced the firepower of the struggling Barcelona Football Club. Less than only one month ago, the club president, Joan Laporta, had publicly backed the then manager of the team, Koeman, by requesting that their fans display patients as the team was engulfed in a major rebuilding project.

To the credit of the fresh out of work Koeman, ran out following last Wednesday’s 1 to 0 loss at Rayo Vallecano, an inferior rival that had not beaten Barca since the year 2002. FC Barcelona, the dominant Spanish League club over the course of the last twenty years or so, is presently sitting in 9^th place in the standings of the highly – contested Spanish League.

Koeman was originally a former FC Barcelona defender, and he took over managing Barca when their financial/economic crisis was just beginning to be absorbed and felt after a recent devastating 8 to 2 defeat to Bayern at the conclusion of the previous 2019 – 2020 football season that cost Koeman’s predecessor in Quique Setién his coaching job. The 58 – year – old Dutch coach had previously helped lead Barcelona to the Copa del Rey title last season, but Barca exited the Champions League in the round – of – 16, and they finished the Spanish League in a modest 3^rd place finish.

However, Koeman laid the foundation of a rejuvenated and retooled Barcelona by bringing in young and talented footballers such as Pedri González, Gavi Páez, Ronald Araújo, as well as Óscar Mingueza into his starting lineup, and by making Ansu Fati one of the team’s leaders along with veterans Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique, and Jordi Alba.

Recently they have been finding it extremely difficult to score goals as they have accomplished just 1 goal over the course of 3 Champions League matches, and Barca’s inability to respond well in the face of adversity once down in a match has demonstrated that Koeman’s team was not performing up its ultimate potential which definitely was a concerning factor the eventually led to Koeman’s dismissal from the historic and legendary football club.

Media Statements

“We showed that we had talent, but it wasn’t enough,” the former head coach of Barcelona, Ronald Koeman, explained just several hours before he was fired by the struggling football club.

Sources:

Wilson, Joseph. “Koeman gone, Barcelona names Sergi Barjuan caretaker coach”. The Associated Press. October 28, 2021.

“FC Barcelona”. Wikipedia. October 28, 2021.