Ronald Koeman entered the press room of the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper with reading glasses and serious expression. He does not usually carry them when he speaks to the press. But in the run-up to the game against Cádiz, the Dutch coach decided not to take any questions from journalists and read a statement in which he asked for time to continue working. The speech surprised the Barça directors, as much for the fact itself as for his words: he came to say that winning the Champions League is a utopia and that if the team finishes in the top four in La Liga, the season can be considered good. A speech far removed from those usually made by Joan Laporta, who was aware of Koeman's decision just a few minutes before. Despite the fact that in circles close to the president the tone of the message was defined as "defeatist", Koeman's presence on the bench at the Cádiz stadium is guaranteed. However, if he loses at Mirandilla as he did last year, he may not make it to Sunday's game against Levante.

Ronald Koeman left his national team to manage Barça. And in the Netherlands this filled the fans with pride. Edwin Winkels, correspondent in Spain for the website Ad.nl, is a great connoisseur of the coach because he has done most of the interviews with him for the documentary Força Koeman. He explains: "In our country everyone supported him. We knew that his dream was to coach Barça". Journalist Joep Schreuder, a reporter for NOS TV, an Eredivisie specialist who has been following Barça for more than twenty years, also knows the coach very well. He now sees the club's present situation as black: "You have to understand that Barça is in a bad moment. Right now it's nothing".

Barça will dismiss Ronald Koeman when it has found a replacement. Several blaugrana sources tell ARA that the Dutch manager has exhausted his credit and will leave the position in the coming weeks, without a concrete date in a month that will see the team playing every three days until the international break in October. Monday's dismal draw against Granada in La Liga, in which the team based its reaction plan to overcoming Duarte's initial goal was to send long balls in to the box, reinforces president Joan Laporta and his collaborators' ideas, who believe the season cannot get back on track without a change of management. Only a radical turn of events on the pitch, or a lack of internal consensus on an alternative that wants to be associated with the start of a project, can change the Dutchman's predictable fate.

The nights are getting longer in Camp Nou. It usually happens. Mateu Alemany left the offices at 4 in the morning on the day of the closing of signings, satisfied to have closed a very important operation to balance the salaries in time: send Griezmann to Madrid. In the early hours of Tuesday to Wednesday, however, there were long faces. After the disaster against Bayern, a good part of the board remained in the box. Joan Laporta, vice president Rafael Yuste and sporting director, Mateu Alemany, left Camp Nou three hours after the end of the match, after two o'clock at night. Gerard Piqué also stayed at the stadium for a long time, until 1 o'clock, despite the fact that he would not have been present at the meeting improvised by an always expressive Laporta. So much so that he did not hide his dissatisfaction with the team's performance. He had just witnessed how, for the first time since statistics have been recorded in the Champions League, the team did not score a single shot between the opposition's posts.

Ronald Koeman has reviewed issues related to the transfer market and the azulgrana squad ahead of Barça-Getafe this Sunday. "I understand that the fans can be frustrated, seeing how other clubs sign these days, and we can't compete economically with PSG, City or United. But this is the economic reality of the club. You have to be realistic and we hope that in the future things will go better, but this situation will still last for a long time", said the coach regarding the latest movements in the transfer market: "We are betting on young players and we need patience, but I think we will have a good team when we recover the injured players".

Ansu Fati begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The squad's star player completed part of Tuesday's training session with the squad for the first time since injuring the inner meniscus in his left knee on 7 November 2020 in a match against Betis at the Camp Nou. His return is getting closer and closer, but although some reports point to the Liga clash against Sevilla at the Sánchez Pizjuán on 11 September as a possible date to see Ansu play again, the Catalan club do not want to set a specific date for his return and say that the Spanish-Guinean player will suit up when he is ready to do so.

The reality was this: having to suffer to get a point after running out of nails from biting them so hard. The debut against Real Sociedad was still a midsummer night's dream, while the trip to Bilbao was a wake-up call. If anyone thought that life without Messi would be a piece of cake, they were deluded. The Argentine, over the last few years, had already pulled the chestnuts out of the fire in games like this. Now the responsibility seems to be taken by Memphis, who with a precious goal prevented the shipwreck. A draw to make up a little for an unfortunate performance by a Barça who, for a few moments in Bilbao, simply survived. There is no consolation in protesting about a goal unjustly disallowed to Araujo just before half-time. To do so would be to hide an ugly reality, that of a team unable to impose its discourse.

Ronald Koeman has not bitten his tongue in the press conference prior to the clash against Athletic Bilbao (10pm, Movistar LaLiga) on Saturday. The Dutch coach has wanted to give a warning to Ilaix Moriba, who still has his future to decide on, while announcing that he will give Pedri a two-week holiday to recover his strength after being the player who played the most games last season, including the European Championship and the Olympic Games in Tokyo. "We have been thinking for a while that it is the best for Pedri and we have decided that tomorrow he will play. But then he will have two weeks off. That way we won't go into November or December with physical problems. Pedri needs a holiday. It's impossible to endure all the minutes he has played during the season, the two tournaments in the summer. He has to rest at least two weeks", admitted the coach.

The first league season without Messi wearing the blaugrana shirt begins. After the journey of the last few weeks and the departure of the Argentine to PSG, it is time to start a new era. "There has been a lot of talk about Messi and it's normal. He is the best player in the world, he has shown for many years in this club his effectiveness, the quality to win titles... We won't have him with us anymore, but we have other players and a very strong squad", Ronald Koeman acknowledged in the press conference prior to Sunday's match against Real Sociedad (8pm, Movistar LaLiga).

The day after closing the season with a sterile victory in Ipurua, the players of the first team of the Barça and the technical team have had lunch in the Ciutat Deportiva. A nice way to say goodbye before starting the holidays. However, at the same time, the last photograph of a group that already knows that it will undergo many changes during the summer, when the new directive of Joan Laporta put in place the "deep" renewal that has in the head for the first squad. Everyone was there except Pedri, who began holidays before his colleagues, and Philippe Coutinho, who is recovering in Brazil of his knee injury.

Last summer, shortly after the league competition resumed, Josep Maria Bartomeu met with his hard core to discuss how the coronavirus crisis would affect the immediate future of Barça. The then president, who had already negotiated a pay cut to the players while football was stopped, and aware that that template would not win the championship, then spoke of taking "unpopular but unpostponable decisions". He was referring to economic issues but also sports. In those early forecasts, Bartomeu still did not know that the team would be swept in the quarterfinals of the Champions League by Bayern Munich (2-8) or that Messi would take the determination to make public the intention to leave the club by means of a burofax. Two episodes that were the epilogue of a no-confidence vote that would end up forcing the resignation of the former president.

The players were shaken after the defeat against Granada. The conviction in the dressing room was firm in the idea that they would win the game and that, for the first time this season, they would be at the top of the league. The defeat, which was received as a slap in the face, has changed the scenario. Barça can still be league champions, a milestone that after the first half of the season seemed a pipe dream, but they no longer depend on themselves. Dropping the three points against Granada was particularly painful because, as well as being a reality check - at the moment the blaugranas are a team under construction - it meant losing again in a crucial game.

Ronald Koeman and Marc-André ter Stegen have been the spokesmen of Barça before the Cup final this Saturday (21.30 h, Telecinco). A win against Athletic Club could mean the first title of the season for the azulgrana team and for the Dutch coach since he sits on the bench at Camp Nou. "It's important for the club to be able to win an important title this season, it's a beautiful thing. I don't think about whether I'm playing for my future in this game, I think about what's best for the team. Since the Supercopa, despite the defeat against Madrid in the Liga, we had a very good run", said the Dutch coach, who added that he "does not need" a public ratification of Joan Laporta regarding his continuity: "I have spoken to him and he has shown me his trust. I know what club I'm in and you have to win things, despite the circumstances we have lived this year. I know what happens if we win the final and what happens if we lose it. I know what a coach's job is and the pressure it puts on me. TThe fact that after a run of nineteen unbeaten Liga games you are being asked about your continuity is proof of that".