22 years of age and clearly falling behind in the race amongst the young pack to fully establish himself in Barcelona’s first-team, Riqui Puig needs to be given a good shake and quickly face up to the inevitable.
To date, the young central midfielder has notched just over 40 games playing time – spread over four seasons and rarely completed a full 90 minutes for the club’s senior side – as per transfermarkt.
It’s also not as if the grimness of his situation hasn’t been spelled out to the player either as MARCA noted Ronald Koeman’s desire to sell the player earlier in the year, as it is understood that the relationship between the pair has Icelandic frosty at best since the Dutchman returned to Camp Nou.
Despite wanting to be fair to the youngster, one can’t help but feel that the indifferent reaction of three different managers can’t be wrong, with Quique Setien and Ernesto Valverde also not wanting to rely on Puig to any great degree in the past when they were managing the Blaugranas.
Nonetheless, whatever the real lowdown may have been, Puig’s strength of character is still commendable, at least from the point of view that he clearly wants to succeed at Barcelona and arguably prove his critics wrong.
However, time and tide wait for no man and it’s fast coming to a point when he has to accept that unless he leaves Camp Nou, stagnation will set in and a promising career will begin to go down the spiral. On the brighter side of things, however, the dark clouds may be parting as Sport notes that Jose Mourinho wants to sign him on loan in January.
A fresh start at Roma could be exactly what the promising young Barca player needs.