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Pellegrini slams Koeman over ‘disrespectful’ Suarez phone call

Luis Suarez
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New Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman has been criticized by Manuel Pellegrini for the way he went about axing Luis Suarez.

After six years at Barcelona, Luis Suarez might be close to an exit from the club.

The forward was among a number of players Ronald Koeman told they were not in his plans for next season.

The newly appointed Barca boss wants to weed off a crop of players he finds disposable to the club at the moment.

Since joining the Catalan giants, Suarez has scored a respectable 198 goals in 283 appearances. On top of that, he has more than a century of assists as well (109).

For a player with such an impact at the club, it was pretty strange how Koeman addressed his plans with the forward.

Reports in Spain claim Koeman only told Suarez he was no longer needed at Barca via a phone call. If the reports are true, the call only lasted 60 seconds.

Real Betis boss Manuel Pellegrini weighs in on the matter and brands it ‘disrespectful’ from the Dutch manager.

“Personally, it does not seem correct,”  he said as quoted by the Daily Mail.

“One, as a coach, must have the conviction and the frontality to speak face to face with the player and tell him that he will not continue to play.”

“I have had to do it many times and it hurts, but doing it by phone seems to me a lack of respect towards the coaches and the players.”

Since talk of his exit from Barcelona surfaced, Luis Suarez broke silence on those rumors for the first time yesterday.

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