By Tim Stannard
 

If Ronald Koeman was faced with a member of the Barcelona squad telling the media that he was the glue holding the club together and not the coach, then the grudge-bearing Barca boss would be irked. 

Unless the player happened to be Dutch. Then it's a free pass.

But that's exactly what Koeman has done on Champions League Eve by deciding that what this most unstable of institutions needs is more fault lines. Koeman was letting rip to Dutch TV channel, NOS, and hit back at Barcelona president Joan Laporta - also letting fly on TV - about who wears the power trousers at the Camp Nou. 

"He was suggesting that the coach does not have all the power," fumed Koeman. "He spoke too much and was not wise on two occasions," claimed the Dutch manager opening a rift with his employers before then doubling the width. "I'm open to staying," said Koeman on his Barca future, "I'm just having a good time. Thanks to me, this club has a future."

The comments have whipped through Cataluyna just two days before Barcelona's low-key opening match against another club that know a thing or two about in-fighting - Bayern Munich.

Let the games begin. 

Champions League Eve is here! 

Yes, the Champions League is returning this week with some tweaks to the Matrix in the race to the final in Saint Petersburg. 

Manchester United are actually a thing again with Cristiano Ronaldo now back at Old Trafford and getting quite the flying start to his reboot with two goals to celebrate his second coming. The Champions of Chelsea have boosted the forward line with Romelu Lukaku. 

PSG have gotten themselves Lionel Messi to line up alongside Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. 

Barcelona have got Luuk de Jong. 

Ok, let's move on quickly to the outliers of Borussia Dortmund could be a prime pick with Erling Haaland who has already scored 13 goals for club and country this summer. 

Either way, it's European soccer that will be the talk of the town for the next few days on Champions League Eve. 

Medvedev introduces soccer to tennis 

There was to be no Grand Slam of Grand Slams for Novak Djokovic in 2021. The Serb who had won the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon was beaten 6-4, 6-4. 6-4 by number two seed, Daniil Medvedev, in the men's US Open final. 

The winner then proceeded to make people notice a little bit more by doing something the kids apparently refer to as being 'viral' relating to a 'video game' for extra cool points. 

After the match point was won, Medvedev dramatically flopped to the ground with his eyes open and tongue sticking out. Ordinarily that would be a huge concern, but this celebration was an ode to FIFA, a computer game version of soccer - not found on Sports Burst's Atari - and a celebration move called 'the dead fish'. 

"Only legends will understand, what I did at last was L2+left," explained the new US Open champion before launching into a thirty-minute explanation of what soccer was to the New York tennis audience. 

Medvedev needed to do something dramatic to grab some attention from the women's winner, Emma Raducanu, who won $2.5 million in prize money having entered the tournament as a qualifier. "I'm still only 18 and I'm just having a free swing at anything that comes my way," said the British overnight sensation who pulled the real boss move of the fortnight in Flushing Meadows.