It had to be him. The man who was forced out of Barcelona and immediately brought the league title to Atlético Madrid may also have brought Ronald Koeman’s brief and ultimately bitter time at the Camp Nou to a close that has long been coming. On the night when the Metropolitano filled for the first time since he arrived, becoming the fans’ idol even in their absence, Luis Suárez provided an assist and a goal to beat Barcelona 2-0 and pushed the Dutchman even closer to a door already held open for him, the roles reversed a year on.
Suárez remains angry at how he was treated by his former manager at Barcelona – “like a 15-year-old” as he put it this week. Instead, he is 34 but the fire still burns and the finishing is still deadly – for Koeman especially. Barcelona’s president, Joan Laporta, claimed on the morning of this match that the result would not change anything, which was true in that the manager was already finished and this can only have made his inevitable demise more imminent, providing an end – if that is what it proves – that could have been scripted and was soon signed.