Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu refuses to resign and insists there is NOT an institutional crisis at Nou Camp, before revealing: ‘Koeman will be the new manager and he told me that Messi is a key player for our new project’
- Barcelona’s club president confirmed Ronald Koeman will be their new manager
- Josep Bartomeu gave a wide-ranging interview on Barca TV over their future
- After recent speculation he said that Lionel Messi will end his career at the club
- He also revealed a list of up to eight players that the club are not willing to sell
- Bartomeu added that though he could resign it would be ‘irresponsible’ to do so
Barcelona club president Josep Bartomeu has refused to resign as president of the club but has confirmed Ronald Koeman will be their new manager as long as ‘nothing goes wrong’.
The president gave a wide-ranging interview to Barcelona TV on Tuesday evening where he spoke about the future of the club and denied there was any ‘institutional crisis’.
There has been an inquest at the Camp Nou following Barcelona’s embarrassing 8-2 Champions League exit to Bayern Munich on Friday.
Josep Bartomeu gave a wide-ranging interview to Barcelona TV about the club’s future
Bartomeu says Ronald Koeman will be appointed as manager as long as ‘nothing goes wrong’
Bartomeu added that Koeman promised to him that Messi will continue to be a ‘key player’
Quique Setien was sacked on the back of the result, and Koeman who was pictured arriving into Barcelona on Tuesday morning is the man very likely to take the hotseat.
And the Dutch manager has told Bartomeu that Lionel Messi is very much in his plans despite speculation the legendary forward is looking to leave the club.
The club’s president said: ‘Koeman will be the new manager and he told me that Messi is a key player for our new project.
‘He has a contract until 2021, I speak a lot with Leo and more regularly with his father.
‘He is number one in the world. There is no doubt that in Koeman’s new project you can count on Messi.’
Ousmane Dembele was one of seven players that Bartomeu insisted would remain at the club
Following the defeat to Bayern Munich, there have been reports that Barcelona would be willing to put many of its players up for sale.
During the interview Bartomeu shut down talk of opening talks with Manchester United if they were interested in signing Ousmane Dembele.
In total he confirmed eight players who the club are not interested in selling.
He said: ‘He’ll stay. Messi, Ter Stegen, Lenglet, Semedo, De Jong, Griezmann and Démbélé are not for sale.
‘We have offers for Ansu Fati but he is not for sale.’
Bartomeu said Phillipe Coutinho who is currently on loan can stay if Koeman wants him
The president also said that Phillipe Coutinho could remain at the Nou Camp as long as Koeman wanted to keep him.
It has been a turbulent week for the club, with Setien and technical secretary Eric Abidal leaving the club.
Abidal was reportedly fired but Bartomeu told club TV that the Frenchman in fact asked to leave the Nou Camp.
Bartomeu said it would be easy to resign from the club but also would be ‘irresponsible’
There have been calls for Bartomeu to resign the club but the 57-year-old said it would be irresponsible to leave the club now.
He said: ‘We didn’t want to resign, we wanted to do the planning for next season. To resign now would be easy but irresponsible. We have a sporting crisis but not an institutional crisis.’
Bartomeu is set to leave the club after the presidential elections which are set to take place on March 15.
