Struggling Spanish La Liga club, FC Barcelona have announced a replacement for dismissed Ronald Koeman.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Sergi Barjuan, the current coach of Barça B, will take provisional charge of the technical management of the senior squad.
“FC Barcelona hereby announces that Sergi Barjuan, the current coach of Barça B, shall be taking provisional charge of the technical management of the senior squad.
“His interim position as first team head coach shall end as soon as the club has hired a full-time head coach to replace the dismissed Ronald Koeman,” a statement by the club reads.
Recall that Barcelona fired Koeman after an abysmal performance at the club.
The Dutchman was confirmed as Barcelona manager in August 2020, taking over from Quique Setien.
Koeman saw his side struggle in his first season in charge, but did manage to bring home one piece of silverware in the form of the Copa del Rey.
Overall in 67 games in charge, Koeman had a record of 40 wins, 11 draws and 16 defeats.
Barca on Wednesday lost 1-0 to Rayo, which came after a 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid in El Clasico at the weekend.
The loss left Barcelona in ninth place in the Liga table, having won just four of their opening 10 league games.
The Blaugrana have also struggled in the Champions League this term.
Following the abysmal performance, president of the club, Joan Laporta, informed him of the decision after defeat against Rayo Vallecano.
TNG reports Koeman will say goodbye to the squad on Thursday at the Ciutat Esportiva as Sergi takes over.
Laporta will officially introduce Sergi to the first team squad this afternoon before the training session at the Ciutat Esportiva.
Meanwhile, Sport, a daily sports newspaper in Spain has reported that Barca have an agreement with club legend Xavi to take over.
The 41-year-old Xavi came through Barca’s famed academy and played for the first team from 1998 to 2015.
He won 25 titles with them, including four UEFA Champions Leagues and eight Spanish league titles.
Xavi moved on to Qatari club Al Sadd where he ended his career in 2019 and is now the coach on a contract until 2023.
However, he has a 1-million euros (1.16 million dollars) release clause and has said in the past he would like to coach Barca one day.
Sport said talks with Al Sadd were still needed, although the report suggested a final decision could come before the end of the day.
FC Barcelona and Xavi have not commented on the issue.
However, whoever gets the coaching job faces a daunting task at the struggling giants who have reported debts of more than 1 billion euros.
They have had to let the likes of Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann go in the off-season.
New talents in Pedri, Gavi, Fati have arrived, but Barca sit only ninth in LaLiga and could face a group stage elimination in the UEFA Champions League.