KOEMAN ABANDONS BARCELONA NEWS CONFERENCE

Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman did not answer questions at Barcelona's news conference on Wednesday, instead reading out a pre-prepared statement.

Barca were held to a 1-1 draw by Granada at camp Nou on Monday,with Koeman's team resorting to desperate measures to rescue a point courtesy of centre back Ronald Araujo.

With Lionel Messi having left due to Barca's dire financial circumstances,the Blaugrana also allowed Antoine Griezman to rejoin Athletico Madrid late in August and took far off mounting a title challenge in la Liga this season.

They also lost their opening champions league match, going down 3-0 to Bayern Munich.

Koeman seems to be under mounting pressure, with president Joan Laporta reportedly keen to replace the Dutchman. Robert Martinez has been touted as a potential replacement.

However, reports suggest koeman would be set for a large pay off should he be dismissed, casting doubt over Barca's ability to change coach.

Koeman was set to face the media on Wednesday ahead of Thursday's league meeting with Cadiz,yet instead he refused to answer questions and read from a statement, urging Barca fans to have patience with the process and insisting the club's hierarchy was behind him.

"Good morning everyone,the club is with me in a situation of rebuilding", koeman said.

The financial situation of the club is linked to the sporting activities and vice versa, this means that we have to rebuild the team without being able to make any big financial investments.

This needs time,the young talent today can end up being the next big star in just the next few years.the good thing is that young people will be able to have opportunity like Xavi and Andres Iniesta had in their day, but we must ask for patience.

"What's more,to remain in a high ranking in la Liga it would be a success,this is a great footballing school for this talents.

"In the champions league you cannot expect miracles.the defeat against Bayern Munich must be taken from this perspective.

The process that we are in right now,the staff deserves unconditional support in words and in actions.I know the press recognize this process, it's not the first time in Barcelona's history that this has happened.

"We count on your support in these difficult times,we as a squad and players are very happy with the support we had from the fans like we had against Granada".

Heading into Thursday's match, Barca have failed to win five of their last eight la Liga games (W3 D4 L1) as many as their previous 24 matches in the competition (W19 D3 L2).

They also have poor recent history against Cadiz, failing to win in their last two la Liga games against the Andalusian side(D1 L1). If they do not win this match,it will be their longest winless run against them in the competition.

In a related development, Koeman also claims that Messi disguised all of Barcelona's problem.

Lionel Messi was like a"tyrant"in training and helped to"disguise everything"wrong at Barcelona in recent years, according to Head coach Ronald Koeman

Barca were Left without their talisman in August when Messi departed for Paris saint Germain on a free transfer after they were unable to fulfill a new contract that had been agreed with the superstar forward.

The six times Ballon d'or winner scored 672 goals and assisted 265 more across 778 appearances during a trophy laden 17seasons spell at camp Nou.

Koeman's side have made a slow start to the post Messi era, having dropped points to Athletico Bilbao and Granada in their first four la Liga games and lost 3-0 to Bayern Munich in the champions league.

And with his job reportedly under threat amid speculation Barca are ready to move for Roberto Martinez, koeman accepts Messi's performances papered over the crack far too long.

"Lionel Messi disguised everything.He was so good and he won", Koeman told Voetbal international."of course he had good players around him, but he made the difference.

"Everyone seems better than they are because of him.this is not a criticism,but an observation. I know how good he is, but it's still nice to see it up close every day.

Everything you would be like to teach a football player,in recognizing situations,in taking the Ball under pressure,in ball speed,in finishing; with Messi everything is a 10. Not normal,not normal!

When he did a finishing practice during training, there were sometimes players who started to hit easy balls,a bit of fooling around.but with Messi everything was:boom boom boom.

"Never frills, everything functional. And he always wanted to win everything. We always play around a rondo before training.if the ball goes around 20 times,then the players in the middle must have an extra turn.

If that happens three times in a row,the players will form two lines and the two were in the middle then walk through and get taps on their heads and such.

I asked Messi if it had happened to him once. "Yes once; he said. In all those years. With him,the older players never lost an exercise against the young. It happened once and Messi was seriously angry about that for a week. Really,a tyrant".

Messi failed in an attempt to force through a move away from Barcelona last year and went on to score 38 goals in 47 games Last season..18 goals more than Barca's next highest scorer Antoine Griezman,who has also departed the club.

That includes 30 goals in la Liga, which was an increase on the 25 managed in the season before koeman arrived.

Koeman fears Messi's departure could have a major knock on effect, with the standards of some players. Fellow academy graduate Ansu fati among them. Shipping since Messi signed for PSG.

He delivered 50 goals Last Year: 30 goals,20 assists. He was an example for others", koeman said."when we won the cup, Messi had won so many trophies, bigger than this one, but you saw that the Copa del Rey did something for him this Time.

"With those young players in there,he saw the future of the club. All those guys wanted to take a picture with him,I have never seen anything like it. That's how big he was and is. It was a shock to the whole town that he's not here now".

Koeman added: the performance with Messi is perfect. We now sometimes do a pass and kick practices,where you had to shoot the Ball into a small goal, around a post.

The other day I saw Ansu fati shoot three metres wide, simply due to lack of concentration. But he wouldn't have done that if Messi had still been there. The,he got set right, Messi became furious. That never happened to Messi.

"I have never met anyone except Johan Cruyff with his football intelligence. Afredo (Schreuder, Koeman's assistant) sometimes explained the exercise in English and Messi does not speak that very well. But after a few seconds he knew it".

Despite his job being under threat ahead of Thursday's trip to Cadiz, Koeman stands by his decision to step down as Netherlands boss in August 2020 to take over at camp Nou.

"I do not regret signing for Barcelona and leaving the Dutch team", he said. "It is situations like that I get the best out of myself and team".