Koeman's paradox

TO Ronald Koeman you are presented with a major challenge than expected when he signed for Barcelona. The Dutch coach arrived at the club where he made history as a player after a unfortunate year of the entity which culminated with the Bayern spanking in Lisbon ready to “make decisions” and change the face of the squad.

For that challenge, the Dutchman made it very clear from the beginning that I had Leo Messi as one of its main props. He said it on the day of his presentation where he also stated: “I don't want anyone who doesn't want to be at Barça.”

That is, to Koeman it opens a paradox. While wants Messi, your challenge now is to excite a player that has made it clear that just stay in the club because he could only leave or pay the clause 700 million or going to trial.

Bill Koeman with the advantage that Messi is an athlete ultra-competitive and that he has assured that he will give everything to achieve success, but the reality is that the Dutchman did not have to wait for the interview of goal.com to know that Messi wanted to go. He told him the player himself to the face when they met the day after the presentation of the new coach.

In that meeting Messi already told Koeman what did you see “more outside than inside” and he made it very clear that there were very few options to continue at the club. So Koeman began to imagine already one season without him 10.

It is not an insignificant detail Messi telling Koeman that he did not want to continue in the team once he had heard the words that the Dutchman dedicated to him on the day of his presentation.

“I don't know if I have to convince Messi. I don't know if it's yes or no. Messi is the best player in the world and you want to have it on your team, not the other way around. For my part, as a coachI love working with Messi. Because it wins you games. And if you get the performance he has shown, very happy if he wants to stay. But he is a Barça player and has a contract. You have to talk to him, of course, he's the captain. Must take decisions but I hope that Messi will continue here for more years“were the words of the coach on the day of his presentation about the Argentine, who went to sole member of staff which he specifically analyzed.

Therefore, in keeping with the dutch words It showed itself “very happy if you want to stay“. The next day Leo confessed that he did not want to stay and then necessarily comes to mind another great headline Koeman left in his presentation: “I just want to work with people who want to be here. If they don't want to be here … I want to work with people who want to do their best for Barcelona. And nothing more”.

TO Koeman is ahead A homework on which it will depend largely your success as a coach blaugrana. Remains discarded the figure of Bartomeu as mediator between the coach and the team's star because Messi has made it very clear that their relationship with him is broken. On the part of the president, it is not that he is delighted with Messi's words either. So the Dutch stands out as a key piece in the gear of the team like the sole interlocutor with, for now, captain.

The Dutchman has to show Leo that he is not just another patch in the catastrophic sports policy that the club has carried out in the last year, that has a project and that he is important to himself.

In favor of Koeman plays the Messi's recognized competitiveness and that the Argentine recognized that “there is a new coach and a new idea. That's good, but then you have to see how the team responds and if it hits us or not. “