Riqui Puig does seem to encapsulate everything that was wrong with Barcelona in recent years, as he’s a talented young player who really struggled to get into the team.
He did eventually get some chances last season but it still felt like the management were looking for any excuse to drop him and use that to justify the approach of stuffing the team with veterans.
The truth is that he might not be good enough, but we won’t know for sure until he gets a decent run of games in a functional team that play with some kind of strategy in mind.
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The future looked brighter for him under Ronald Koeman, and he must’ve been encouraged when the new boss listed him as one of the players who would ensure that the club had a bright future:
Koeman also purring about Konrad: "If I had to highlight one of the youngsters, I would say Konrad, I am really happy with him. But we also have Pedri, Riqui [Puig]… We have great a future ahead of us."
— Samuel Marsden (@samuelmarsden) September 16, 2020
Clearly something has gone wrong in the past couple of days, with reports of a total U-turn from the boss as he’s told Puig to find himself a new club:
Ronald Koeman has reportedly told Barcelona youngster Riqui Puig that he should look for a new club this season as he will not be counting on him, according to @gerardromero pic.twitter.com/rZtZ5moRYq
— B/R Football (@brfootball) September 19, 2020
It’s a shame for the player but hopefully he manages to use this chance to find a team who will truly value his talents, and it would be good to see him excel somewhere.
Real Betis tends to be a landing spot for Barca youngsters when they are looking for a new team so they’ll probably be mentioned in the next few days, but it will be interesting to see where he goes.
They will regret loosing puig very soon.
They will lose him the same way they lost kubo
please help tell ronald koeman not 2 sell that little player.