Luis Suarez slams Barcelona manager: 'Koeman doesn't have a lot of character'

Former FC Barcelona forward Luis Suarez has well and truly found a new home with La Liga Santander champions Atletico Madrid. His recent victory with his new club has allowed him to become more vocal about the struggle he faced when he was booted out of the Camp Nou last summer.

Suarez and most of the rest of the world were surprised when Barcelona manager Ronaldo Koeman decided to exclude the Uruguay international from his plans. The 34-year-old had not shown signs of fading, but Barcelona decided to let him go, saying they did not believe that he could still compete at the top level.

At 34-years-old, Suarez is indeed moving into the twilight of his career. However, he was confident that he was still playing at the top of his game. Fast forward a year later, and Suarez scores the decisive goal that handed Atletico Madrid the narrow victory that won them the league title in the final match of the 2020/21 season.

Atletico manager Diego Simeone knew that he hit the jackpot when Barcelona let go of Suarez, and he proceeded to build up the player's confidence throughout the season.

"My tears were tears of happiness," Suarez said, as quoted by Marca. He then went on to speak about his former club, claiming that he has come to terms with the decision to let him go. "It was because of the situation, I'll always be grateful to them because they've given me everything and allowed me to play at the elite level," he said.

However, Suarez could not stay silent about the way former president Josep Maria Bartomeu handled the situation. "When they wanted Leo [Messi] to stay, they called me to convince him. They called me to talk to [Antoine] Griezmann... so why couldn't they have called me when they wanted me to leave?," he said.

Furthermore, he shared how Koeman was not able to make decisions for himself at the time, and was only acting like a puppet for club management. "The coach came to tell me that he doesn't have me in his plans because he wants another kind of No.9. But Koeman said 'they told me to tell you'."

"After leaving me out for three games he then said 'if things aren't resolved, I'm going to count on you against Villarreal'. That's when I realised that he didn't have a lot of character. He wasn't a coach, it all came from above."

It is quite interesting how much Suarez is now revealing about what took place last summer, now that he has been vindicated. He had clearly been emotional when he was forced out of the Camp Nou last year, but it appears as though there is still a lot that he wants to say on the matter.

He also said on numerous occasions that his family had to suffer due to the unexpected move to the Spanish capital. He explained that he and his wife had to make a lot of sacrifices as they uprooted their children from their home in Catalunya.

"My wife was crying with me because we've suffered a lot with having to move our children," Suarez said. He also said that he worked hard to recover from knee issues that plagued him at the start of the season. Everything worked out well in the end, and he proved to be a key player in Atletico's run to the trophy.

Despite his unceremonious exit from the club, Suarez says that his close friend Lionel Messi should stay with the Catalan giants. Messi wanted to leave last summer, but is currently still undecided if he will renew his contract which expired on June 30.