Luis Suárez’s phone number and the call that Ronald Koeman is still waiting for | OPINION

The present of Ronald Koeman is the chorus of a 90s song: he ran out of arguments and methodology. To the technician of Barcelona today only slight promises of a better future remain. Before the 2-0 loss to Atlético de Madrid, Koeman met with Barcelona president Joan Laporta, who gave him his vote of confidence. However, statistics and ongoing bad sports news weaken this pat on the shoulder. Koeman, during the transmission of the last Barça game, was approached several times from the stands. For the Catalan sports media (in unanimous vote) that is the place to which you must return. Away from the substitute bench, relieved of a toxic relationship with the club that loved him so much.

The former defender assured the manager that with the return of the injured in attack (Agüero, Dembelé, Braithwaite) he will be able to return to Barça’s competitive essence. His silent phone is the condemnation of a lonely man. The only one who pretended to call him was Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan striker who fired a year ago. Koeman didn’t need to answer. The message was a modified saying: “Ronald, time did not prove you right.”

“Atlético won easily”. The statistician Mister Chip says it, the famous analyst Julio Maldonado repeats it and it is shared by the main Catalan newspapers: Sport and Mundo Deportivo. It was so null the Barcelona, who spent 45 minutes without shooting at the goal on the Wanda Metropolitano court. Lemar’s goal at 23 ′ again revealed the defensive poverty of the Catalan club: without relays for the brand, without intensity to close the spaces, without the anticipation of an elite club.

At 44 ‘it was possible to reproduce what millions had rehearsed in their minds: Luis Suárez scoring a goal, and with Koeman in the stands. That’s how it went. With celebration apologizing to the Barcelona fans, but with the irony of the phone call. The former central defender called Suárez for just 60 seconds in August last year to tell him that “he didn’t have it in his plans.”

“Zero in almost everything.”

There are two weeks left for Barcelona to reappear on the courts (against Valencia at the Camp Nou). Koeman only has the last card left to play against Valencia with the full team. The question is, will you really have enough time for this staking? It would not be the first time that the endorsement of a leader, then turned into a cold letter of dismissal. And Laporta’s word has the firmness of a jelly, but let us remember his security in the permanence of Lionel Messi.

Ronald Koeman suffers from worst-in-class syndrome: he fails any exams and has a zero on almost everything. Just by numbers, their permanence in the Catalan box is unsustainable. Luis Suárez must be told not to pretend to call him more. The broken phone is another of the evils that Koeman suffers. The Dutchman, never as much as today, knows that his stay at the Barza is the condemnation of more wrong numbers.

…