Miralem Pjanic criticises Ronald Koeman following Barcelona exit

Miralem Pjanic has hit out at Ronald Koeman following his loan move to Besiktas, insisting that the Barcelona coach 'disrespected' him during his time at Camp Nou.

The Bosnian midfielder completed a loan move to Besiktas on Thursday evening, agreeing a 60% reduction of his salary - with the Turkish champions paying €2.75m of his new €3.2m year wage packet and Barca paying the rest - to make the move happen.

Speaking to Marca, the midfielder expressed relief at getting his move away from Barca, largely due to how he felt he was treated by Koeman.

"Right now, today, I don't know what he wanted exactly," Pjanic said. "He didn't try to explain things to me or find a solution. I would go to ask him what he wanted from me, positionally or what I was doing well or badly. I wanted to adapt as quickly as possible to the team and be useful.

"You need 17 or 18 players from a squad to win titles. He didn't have problems with my play and didn't give me answers. Time went on and the situation went from bad to worse, without any reason.

"Like I said, I was being professional, so this is difficult to understand. Many people on the inside didn't understand it either.

"Then there was this opportunity to leave and I wanted to listen to that, because I need to play. I know what I can bring to a team, but you need confidence and dialogue and things to be said to your face.

"I'd have preferred things to be said to me directly, but it was what it was. It was a very odd way of communicating and it's the first time I've ever experienced this. I've had a very good relationship with all of my coaches. I don't know what happened, I honestly don't know. He didn't want responsibility or confrontation, because I guess that couldn't be handled."

Pjanic also revealed that the Barcelona head coach didn't even welcome him to the club when he'd signed from Juventus in place of Arthur last summer.

"My situation was complicated from the beginning. I got there after two weeks away, started to train little by little, alone, to prepare myself to start with my teammates. Three, four, seven, 10 days went by and the coach never came to talk about the season, about me, to speak about anything"

The midfielder will be hoping for a much more enjoyable spell at new club Besiktas, whom he is set to make his debut for against Yeni Malatyaspor on 11th September.