Arda Turan has opened up about his season (or lack thereof) at Barcelona, and he wasn’t happy with how things went under Ernesto Valverde.
Still under contract with the Blaugrana until June 30th, the former Atletico Madrid man wasn’t given a single minute under the Basque coach, and he moans about this in an interesting interview featured in Sport.
“I wasn’t happy when I left Barcelona. I would have been if I had failed, but Valverde didn’t give me even a minute to play. I was the one who had given the most assists after Messi and Suarez last season!”
He’s got a point, he certainly wasn’t given so much as a second glance by the erstwhile Barca coach. But think of the alternatives – Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele were brought in in consecutive windows and both needed chances, then more recently players like Ansu Fati and some of the canteranos have emerged from the youth ranks to hoover up what minutes Messi and co. leave behind.
It was never going to be easy for Turan after he failed to impress in his first couple of seasons at the Nou Camp, and it seems like Valverde considered him something of a bad influence too.
He was never going to be able to climb back out of that hole, and perhaps it would have been better for all parties to let him go on the cheap a couple of years ago.
