Usually the arrival of a new manager will signal the start of the new era for a club, but it’s hard to tell if Ronald Koeman will be allowed to overhaul this Barcelona team or if he’s purely a placeholder.
The fact that he gave up his role with the Netherlands to take over at Barca does suggest that he thinks he’s a long term choice, but Barcelona have their Presidential elections next year and that means a new leader may want to appoint their own choice.
The potential uncertainty over his role and the perilous financial situation at the club means he’s unlikely to have a good old fashioned “war chest” to spend in January, so he’ll need to raise funds by getting rid of fringe players.
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Potential buyers are fully aware of the desperation to move some players on, and Mundo Deportivo have indicated that Inter Milan hope to take advantage of this by moving for Junior Firpo in January.
Firpo is another example of poor recruitment from Barca where they picked up a talented player who had demonstrated some ability, but they never had a plan to get him into the first team and he’s just completely stalled.
There’s no sign that Koeman has any plans to use him on a regular basis, so Inter should have a good chance of picking him up for a very reasonable fee.
Those chances are boosted when you consider the report claims Barca are desperate to raise funds to sign Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia, but they will need to sell more players than Firpo to put themselves in a position to make those moves happen.