I am not going anywhere: Messi
13 Jan 2015 11:07 PM GMT
“I have never demanded anything to ensure that I stay because I have never had any intention of leaving. I have heard it said that my dad has spoken to Chelsea or Manchester City. It is all lies. I have taken this chance to deny it so that everyone knows the truth,” he told Barca TV after Sunday’s match.
Messi had missed training on Monday, citing a stomach bug, after being left on the bench by Enrique for last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to Real Sociedad. And he sent the rumour mill into overdrive later in the day by following Chelsea and two of their players Thibaut Courtois and Filipe Luis on social media site Instagram. Sources in the Catalan press then claimed Messi had met with Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu in midweek to ask for the former Barca captain Enrique to be replaced as coach.
“I am grateful to be able to give my version of events,” he said. “It hurts me because it comes from here, from Barcelona, from people that love the club, or say they do. It doesn’t come from Madrid like it has in the past. It is not good that they look for rivalry between Luis Enrique and I because there isn’t any. We need to be more united than ever, the fans and us. We have an important six months ahead to achieve good things for us and for the club,” Messi added.
Any doubts over Enrique’s job in the short term were blown away by arguably his side’s best performance in his seven-month reign. Messi teed up Neymar to slot home the opener after 12 minutes and then repeated the trick to allow Luis Suarez to register just his second La Liga goal.
Messi had missed training on Monday, citing a stomach bug, after being left on the bench by Enrique for last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to Real Sociedad. And he sent the rumour mill into overdrive later in the day by following Chelsea and two of their players Thibaut Courtois and Filipe Luis on social media site Instagram. Sources in the Catalan press then claimed Messi had met with Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu in midweek to ask for the former Barca captain Enrique to be replaced as coach.
“I am grateful to be able to give my version of events,” he said. “It hurts me because it comes from here, from Barcelona, from people that love the club, or say they do. It doesn’t come from Madrid like it has in the past. It is not good that they look for rivalry between Luis Enrique and I because there isn’t any. We need to be more united than ever, the fans and us. We have an important six months ahead to achieve good things for us and for the club,” Messi added.
Any doubts over Enrique’s job in the short term were blown away by arguably his side’s best performance in his seven-month reign. Messi teed up Neymar to slot home the opener after 12 minutes and then repeated the trick to allow Luis Suarez to register just his second La Liga goal.
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