Laporta's speech in the dressing room, the meeting on Koeman until 4 am: the shock waves of Barcelona's defeat in Luz

In Spain there is already talk of successors for the Barcelona coach, after the copious defeat against Benfica in the Champions League. The president of Barcelona gave a speech to the players at the end of the game and on arrival in Catalonia he met with his trusted men out at dawn to talk about the likely departure of Ronald Koeman

Even in one of the worst moments in Barcelona's recent history, the 3-0 defeat against Benfica was an unexpected blow, not only because of the numbers but also because the Catalans had never started the Champions League with two defeats.

Ronald Koeman's position is increasingly fragile and according to the Spanish sports press his future at Camp Nou is at risk after yet another humiliation in Lisbon.

The two newspapers from Madrid (“Marca” and “As”) and the two from Barcelona (“Mundo Deportivo” and “Sport”) reveal that shortly after the team landed in Barcelona, ​​president Joan Laporta called an emergency meeting in the sports city from the club, which dragged on until 4 am. The meeting was attended by vice president Rafa Yuste, football director Mateu Alemany and Laporta's advisor, Enric Masip. The only theme was the possible removal of Ronald Koeman, with the newspapers also advancing that the meeting had already discussed possible successors for the Dutchman.

Xavi Hernandez (Al-Sadd) is the most obvious candidate, given his background as a player and identification with the spirit of Barcelona, ​​but Roberto Martínez, Belgium coach, is another name mentioned. More surprising seems to be the Andrea Pirlo hypothesis. According to the program “La TdT” on Catalunya Radio, the Italian, who last season coached Juventus without particular success, is an old passion of Joan Laporta.

It is certain that Ronald Koeman will not be on the bench at Barcelona in the team's next game, for the championship, at the home of champion Atlético Madrid, as he is suspended.

PLAYER SUPPORT

According to the daily “As”, Joan Laporta went to the Barcelona dressing room after the final whistle at the Estádio da Luz where he gave a speech in support of the players, promising a plan to get the club out of this difficult situation in sport, which it follows months and months of institutional crisis.

The newspaper says that the name of Ronald Koeman did not appear once in the speech of the president of Barcelona, ​​a sign that the Dutchman is out of the club's plans. The coach wasn't even in the locker room when Laporta spoke to the players, as the conversation took place when Koeman spoke to the media.