Suarez opens up after leaving, Koeman gives his thoughts on the Barca transfer window

Luis Suarez keeps on talking about his departure from Barcelona and has explained that he thinks the club wanted to get him away from Lionel Messi.

The Uruguay international has moved on to Atletico Madrid after being told he’s not in Ronald Koeman’s plans and has a theory about why the club wanted him out.

“I think they wanted to remove me from Messi’s side. Maybe it annoyed them that I had a good relationship with Leo. Perhaps they didn’t want him to be with me so much. I can’t find any reason to think that would damage the team, though.

“We looked for each other constantly on the pitch, but for the good of the team. Maybe they wanted him to play with more teammates. That could have something to do with it. I can’t find any other reason to want to separate us because we got on well on the pitch.”

Source – ESPN

Messi also tried to leave Barcelona in the summer but couldn’t find a way out and Suarez added he believes the Catalan giants “should have respected his decision to leave.”

On the other hand, Ronald Koeman has had a pretty interesting start as Barcelona manager. He was able to get some of the players he wanted into the club in the transfer window, but due to the constraints that COVID-19 has placed on the Barca budget, the club couldn’t move for all their targets.

Koeman chatted a bit about Barca’s current squad and why they couldn’t get some of the players in that they wanted.

“I am happy with the squad that we have. We have tried to improve: With some things we’ve done that, and others we haven’t, but that’s also partly due to the club’s financial situation. We have to accept it and work hard.”

He then talked about a few of the new players at Barca and their performance. Specifically, Pedri, Trincão, Pjanić, Dest, Araujo, and Riqui.

“Pedri and Trincão have been working since day 1, performing well. Pedri is only 17 and I love how he is working, training and playing. Trincão is also adapting quickly to our ideas, and he is a young player with a great future ahead of him.

“Pjanić has arrived here a little later, but he will gradually get up to full fitness. He has a lot of quality. Dest looked very comfortable in his 20 minutes against Sevilla.

“Araujo has a great future ahead of him. He is physically strong and pretty fast. He is a kid who wants to learn. He is always open to learning new things. He has things to improve, which is normal at his age.

“Riqui has decided to stay. If his performance is there, then he will have opportunities to play.”

Most of the Barca first team are away on international duty but the rest have been given a few days off by Koeman. They are due back on Monday to start preparing for the trip to Getafe.

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