Sports Burst - Koeman: Messi More Out Than In
Barcelona drops another standout episode of the season as Koeman admits lack of confidence in Messi staying on at Barcelona
By Tim Stannard
Koeman admits hope rather than reason over Messi stay and notes that Luis Suarez moving to Atletico Madrid was not ideal
Rather than dropping an entire season to binge as some streaming providers do to their subscribers to jam up their watch lists, Barcelona are following The Mandalorian / WandaVision approach - an old-school schedule with episodes released at regular intervals.
Barcelona is running at about two jaw-dropping episodes a week. Most recently, there was the kerfuffle about the club owing around $1.5 billion and facing bankruptcy. Then there was the release of Lionel Messi's half-a-billion dollar contract by a still unknown mole / whistle blower.
Tuesday keeps the content stream up with a Ronald Koeman interview in The Athletic, where the Dutch coach admits that he is not "confident" about Messi signing up for another stint at Barcelona's particular house of fun in the summer. "I'm hopeful, yes, about this because he’s a great player and he’s still winning matches for us, for the team," said Koeman.
Surmising that the interview was done before the weekend, those chances are even slimmer now.
Koeman also talks about Luis Suarez being sent to Atletico Madrid, where the forward is now driving a title charge for the Rojiblancos with 14 league goals. "It would have been better if Luis Suarez signed for Juventus instead of Atletico Madrid because he’s still in the Spanish League," admitted Koeman, Monday morning quarterbacking Barcelona's transfer bungle.
Unless there is a special release at some point with the Camp Nou leaker being revealed, the next episode drops on Sunday February 7 with Betis vs. Barcelona from 2:30PM ET.
The Sports Burst live show with our Kaylyn Kyle in the hot seat today will be reviewing the latest Barcelona episode at 12PM ET on our Facebook live channel.
Poch feeling positive about powerhouse poachers
The upcoming Lionel Messi spin-off series - 'Camp Now?' - has the Argentinean moving to PSG. If that happens then he might have quite the supporting cast in Neymar and Kylian Mbappe up front. Neymar pledged fealty to PSG on Sunday and Mauricio Pochettino has pulled a reverse Koeman by predicting that "they will stay for a long time at PSG," and that the club are working to tie the players down to new deals.
However, Sports Burst has to be a Donald Downer on that one, because to add to the woes of Ligue 1 clubs of no spectators in the stands to produce revenue, there is currently no domestic TV deal in place, after the current one broke down after four months, and no new tenders were found in a bidding process on Monday.
But back to the action on the pitch and Ligue 1 has a double-header on beIN SPORTS on Wednesday another big round in the three-way title fight. Lille are currently at the top of the tree and will be taking on Bordeaux from 1PM ET and that is followed directly by PSG hosting Nimes at 3PM ET.
Liverpool shore up defensive woes on deadline day
An understandably sluggish winter transfer window saw Liverpool as the biggest busiest club on deadline day and probably the side with the most need to be.
Joel Matip was announced as missing the rest of the season to join Virgil Van Dijk and Joe Gomez on the sidelines with long-term injuries - three starting center-backs. Although playing central midfielders in their place has papered over some cracks, Liverpool brought in two stoppers on Monday.
The first is Turkish central defender, Ozan Kabak, on loan from Schalke where the 20-year-old has formed part of a team with one Bundesliga victory from 35. The second was Ben Davies from second-tier side, Preston North End.
Delle Ali's long rumored move to PSG never came off in the end, despite Jose Mourinho giving the English playmaker the full Iker Casillas cold shoulder treatment. But USMNT defender, DeAndre Yedlin, has a new lease of live by joining up with Galatasaray where you will be able to see him week in, week out on beIN SPORTS.
Indeed, Galatasaray are in action today from 11AM ET on beIN SPORTS against reigning champions - but not so hot this season - Istanbul Basaksehir.