COMMENT: He doesn't deserve this. Ronald Koeman. It makes little sense. A change for change's sake? How else could you describe what Joan Laporta has planned for Barcelona this summer...?

So the latest is Koeman's a dead man walking. With Barca's title challenge suddenly over, just as quickly as it had been revived, the Dutchman has no other trump cards to play. He was always on the outs with Laporta. He wasn't the president's man and only something extraordinary was going to save him from the sack halfway through his two-year contract.

But for this column, Koeman deserves to serve that second year. For everything he's been put through. For the job he has performed. The club's former captain deserves the support of his new president, not his P45.

If it was for Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola, there'd be an argument to be made. But Laporta cannot stand in front of the socios and claim a confidence that removing Koeman as head coach and replacing him with the candidates he's now talking to will actually catapult the club forward.

After all, he was running down his top choice leading into January's election. It was Laporta who argued - and to be fair quite reasonably - that Xavi wasn't ready for the Nou Camp dugout. Laporta reasoning that his time in charge of Al Sadd offered little in terms of preparing Xavi for the demands of being Barca's head coach.

"In my proposal he is not there," declared then candidate Laporta, "another thing is that I think that in the short, medium or long term, he could be the coach of Barça. I think he has to have a little more experience before that.

"Now the club requires experience. Just like we did with (Frank) Rijkaard, who left the bases for (Pep) Guardiola."

But now three months on and suddenly Xavi is qualified? Indeed, he's not only qualified but he's the club's priority? Any chance of an explanation for that one, Joan?

Barcelona celebrate winning the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao

And what of the other two now being mentioned? Hansi Flick and the throwback - Frank Rijkaard. The latter left a legacy in his previous spell as Barca coach. No doubt about it. Two LaLiga titles and a Champions League triumph. Rijkaard was a success and most significantly he was the coach who gave a 16 year-old Lionel Messi his debut.

But Rijkaard hasn't been in work since 2013. His last job in club management was with Galatasarary in 2010. That feelers have been sent out to the Dutchman is bordering on the ridiculous. And an insult to Koeman.

But what of Hansi Flick? The latest is the departing Bayern Munich coach has had his head turned by Laporta's intermediaries. Succeeding Jogi Low as Germany coach post-Euros is no longer the be all and end all. The opportunity to replace Koeman at Barca is forcing a rethink.

But what does Flick possess that Koeman lacks? His success with Bayern Munich last season was the stuff of football dreams. And he does deserve great credit for turning the team around after Niko Kovac's demise.

But guiding an experienced, well-drilled squad at the peak of their powers is very different to what Koeman has had to handle this season. Would Flick have done any better with the cards that Koeman was dealt? Indeed, would he have even managed to match what Barca did this season if he had been on the touchline? For this column, the answer is a negative.

Koeman has been fighting spot fires from the first day he took the job. The board's demands that he force out Luis Suarez - with the broken promise of a replacement being signed - was just the first of a catalog of crises Koeman has faced down.

There was Messi and the infamous burofax; the departure of a second locker room leader in Ivan Rakitic; the tension between Josep Maria Bartomeu's board and the squad after the previous season's social media scandal. Crisis upon crisis - and all being played out with an election called. But then there was more...

The resignation of Bartomeu's board; the decision by the election candidates not to buy in January; and the declaration by interim president Carles Tusquests that Messi should've been sold when that summer transfer request had been faxed through.

Yet, still Koeman battled on. Indeed, he did more than that. Barca, a team clearly in transition and with absolutely no help from the board, managed to not only remain competitive, but lift the Copa del Rey.

Koeman turned to youth. He introduced Oscar Mingueza and Ilaix Moriba. He accelerated the progress of summer arrival Pedri, to the point where he's now a guarantee for Spain's Euros squad. He backed Ronald Araujo and managed to get a tune out of Antoine Griezmann.

And beyond all that, he managed to get Messi playing with a smile on his face again. If the Argentine does choose to put pen to paper and stay, it would have more to do with the work and management of Koeman than any relationship Laporta claims to have with the Messi family.

What Koeman gave Barca this season was respite - and hope. While chaos and crisis was a weekly topic coming out of the club, all driven by the decisions of those inside the board room, Koeman's team - this young, vibrant team - offered a welcome break. And it also offered hope. The likes of Pedri and Ilaix (along with the forgotten Ansu Fati) giving the Barca support something to cling to for the future.

Koeman did all this - and more. That Laporta has been actively working to replace him these past few weeks is a disgrace. That he claims the candidates he's speaking to are an upgrade on the Dutchman is ridiculous.

A change for change's sake? It makes no sense. Ronald Koeman doesn't deserve this.