Ronald Koeman has confirmed that Riqui Puig does not appear in his plans for Barcelona this season. The 21-year-old midfielder was missing from Koeman’s game selection on Saturday evening for the practice game with Elche (1-0 victory) and may look forward to a new club for the time being.

Although Puig is an absolute crowd pleaser in Barcelona and showed his talent on a regular basis last season, Koeman is not counting on the fine-tuned midfielder this season. “I’ve told Riqui Puig that it’s going to be difficult for him to get a lot of play this season. However, I also told him that he still has a future with Barcelona. I advise him to leave temporarily: at his age he should be able to play”, the former coach of the Dutch national team says. Barça TV.

Puig comes from the youth training of Barcelona and last season played eleven matches in the main force, in which he was good for two assists. Quique Setién gave the youngster a lot of confidence in his 4-3-3 system, but the 4-2-3-1 system Koeman seems to opt for threatens to be negative for Puig.

Koeman chose Sergio Busquets and Frenkie de Jong as controllers against Elche tonight, and also has Miralem Pjanic, among others, at his disposal. Ivan Rakitic left for Seville earlier this summer and Arturo Vidal is also on his way to the exit near Barcelona, but that has hardly any positive consequences for Puig, who will be stuck in the Camp Nou until mid-2023.

Puig was still in May by The Telegraph associated with a transfer to Ajax, while also Sport has claimed several times in the past that the top talent was on the radar of the Amsterdam club. According to The Telegraph Barcelona wanted to involve André Onana with Ajax and goalkeeper Neto, midfielders Puig and Alex Collado or midfielder Carles Aleña in a possible deal. However, such a deal never got off the ground.