Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman says he has no issues with Lionel Messi and it was more of a situation between player and club.
It could have been a whole different story if Barcelona allowed Messi get his way.
The Argentine genius sent a transfer request to the club towards the end of last month.
La Pulga’s camp claimed he had a clause that gave him the option of leaving the club for free.
On the other hand, Barcelona weren’t settling for that insisted only a €700m fee will see them let Messi go.
After about 10 days of back and forth claims from both parties, the Barca captain finally decided to stay at the club for the final year of his contract.
Despite the allegations Messi made at the club in his recent statement, Koeman says he has no personal issues with the player.
“That has passed me reasonably well,” the former Netherlands national team coach told Fox Sports. “That was mainly a conflict between Messi and the club. I have spoken to Messi since then and we will continue as usual.”
“We are now working towards the new season and I assume that we are going to do it with this group with which we are the preparation,”
Questions remain about how motivated the Barca captain will be after being ‘forced’ to remain at the club.
Messi was all smiles in their recent friendly victory over Gimnastic at the weekend. It appeared like all is well but we’ll just have to see about that.
Later today, Barcelona take on Girona in yet another friendly game before their La Liga campaign begins at the weekend against Elche.
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