MADRID (Reuters) - Ronaldinho's time at Barcelona is at an end, according to the club's former coach Carles Rexach.

"The Ronaldinho era is over," Rexach was quoted as saying in sports daily Marca on Friday.

"I thought things could be sorted out, but now everyone is putting their oar in against him and it seems as though he is angry with the club.

"There is no way out of the situation."

Rexach, a former Barcelona player who coached the team in 1991 and again from 2001-2002, said the club was partly to blame.

"The directors of the club should have done a little more," he said. "They gave him too much leeway, they should have sorted things out earlier on."

A succession of injury and fitness problems, added to media speculation about late-night partying, led to reports Barcelona were prepared to offload Ronaldinho at the end of the season.

However, Barcelona President Joan Laporta has denied there is a rift between player and club.

FAILURES

Ronaldinho's agent, his brother Roberto de Assis, said the former World Player of the Year was being made a scapegoat for the club's failures in the past two seasons.

"When things are not going well in a big club like Barcelona then it is understandable that they look for people to blame, but my brother is not the only person responsible for this situation," De Assis told RAC 1 radio on Friday.

De Assis also denied reports that he was prepared to invoke article 17 of the FIFA transfer regulations to leave the club at a knockdown price at the end of the season.

"It hasn't entered our heads to leave under article 17," he said. "We have not made any threat to use it to leave the club."

The article effectively permits players to break contract after three years if they signed under the age of 28 provided they notify their club within 15 days of the last match of the season.

Players have to pay compensation calculated using a formula based on wages and their original transfer fee but it is almost always a substantially lower figure than their market value.

(Reporting by Simon Baskett; Editing by Peter Rutherford)