Junior Firpo has lashed out hard at Ronald Koeman. The 25-year-old wing defender got little time to play at Barcelona under the rule of the Dutchman and says in the program Que T’hi Jugues by Cadena SER that Koeman lied to the substitutes in his eyes. Firpo made the switch to Leeds United last summer and sees big differences between the English club and Barcelona.
“I had lost my joy in football and realized at that time how important family is. Things happened with Koeman that I didn’t understand, at times there was no respect for me and my teammates. I don’t understand why he stayed inside the day after a game when the subs were training. When I’m a substitute, I just want to show things,” says Firpo. “The only way to show yourself is in training. This is more difficult if the whole group is training. So the day you can show it is the day after the game when the substitutions train hard. And then you’re not there…”
Barcelona took him over from Real Betis in the summer of 2019 and in two years he came to 41 official games. Firpo played eighteen games last season, seven of which as a starting player. At a certain point, the wing defender says that he has approached Koeman. “I asked him about my situation and he started lying to me. Then why should I keep asking him questions? He said things that made no sense. For example, that I trained badly, or that I influenced the group of players. Ask whoever you want. See if someone on the staff tells you the same about me.”
“I don’t know what it means if you influence the group, I’m guessing it had to do with my attitude,” continues Firpo. “I don’t know how a young boy who has just come in can influence a group that has already won everything and has been everywhere in their lives. In my view, something like that doesn’t change their way of training at all.”
Firpo notices that there is a big difference at Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa from the situation he experienced at Barcelona under Koeman, Quique Setien and Ernesto Valverde. “We didn’t watch any video footage of opponents. Not with Valverde, not with Quique and not with Koeman. Sometimes they showed something concrete from an opponent. At Bielsa we look at a lot of images, that might be the other extreme. There may be a middle ground in that regard.”