It seems that Gerard Pique will end his career at Barcelona after he signed a new contract with the club until 2024 on Thursday.
Pique did not stop from openly criticizing the president and the club management with agreeing to a 50 percent smaller contract to help the club in the financial crisis.
“I can’t believe my club paid someone to criticize us players. I mean those comments on social media. They asked us to reduce salaries and then they spent that money against us. It’s scandalous. I asked the president how that could have happened and he told me he had no idea about it. I trusted him too. But I see that the person who did that dirty work is still among the leading people in the club. I can’t figure it out,” Pique said for La Vanguardia.
The Barca defender also spoke about the club’s relationship with Messi, who was one step away from leaving the club this summer.
“If I were president, everything would be different. I would do anything to hold Leo and I would not allow such a schism to occur. The Nou Camp must be named after him and we must guard him. I did not talk too much with Messi at the time because I thought it was a personal decision. But I called him and said to him, ‘Leo, hold on for another year. New people will come,'” Pique said.
A reporter asked him how he commented on Messi’s move to inform the club in writing that he wanted to leave.
“Everything is shocking in that story. It’s not clear to me how the club got into a situation where the best player in history sends him a message that he wants to leave because no one in the club listens to him. What’s going on in that management? Messi deserves everything, not that that’s how they treat him,” Pique said, adding:
“I don’t think the players have to take the lead in the club, but it’s a sign that the club is not working well. When everything is arranged, then the president is in charge, under him is the coach and then only the players. But the hierarchy in this club is broken it is not known who is in charge “.
