‘Messi unsure of Barca future’
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Lionel Messi is showing he is unsure about his future by not signing a new Barcelona contract, according to former candidate for the club presidency Agusti Benedito.
The Argentina star agreed to a new four-year deal in July but has yet to put pen to paper, despite his current contract having less than a year to run.
Speculation has mounted that Messi could be tempted to leave Barca, with Manchester City reportedly prepared to activate his €300million release clause in order to reunite him with former boss Pep Guardiola.
Barca technical secretary Robert Fernandez has insisted it is a matter of time before Messi signs his extension, but Benedito believes the 30-year-old has clear doubts around his decision. “They’ve been leaving the renewal of Messi, the most important player, until the end... and with it still not signed, it’s a concern,” Benedito told Onda Cero and Radio Marca.
“Messi’s case could be worse than Neymar’s because, as things stand, from January 1, he’s free. Messi has always wanted a competitive team and the situation is a worry. (Barcelona president Josep Maria) Bartomeu said Messi had signed his renewal in June and that’s not the case. Bartomeu has not been able to conclude Messi’s renewal. If Messi hasn’t signed the renewal, it’s because he’s unsure.”
Barca have largely endured a frustrating transfer window to date, losing Neymar for a worldrecord €222m fee to Paris SaintGermain and facing defiance from Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund over top targets Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele.
Brazil international Paulinho was signed for €40m from Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao and Nice’s Jean Seri is reportedly close to securing a move, but Benedito believes Barca’s recruitment of midfielders underlines a sense of confusion over their transfer plans.
“The feeling given by the board is that they don’t know what they’re looking for in the market,” said Benedito, who began a campaign to lodge a vote of no confidence against the club’s directors in June.
“There’s a bit of disruption. It seems like Seri is coming and with him they’ll have about 11 midfielders. We lose Neymar and we sign Paulinho.” replied: “Yep. We created three, four chances before the goal. They play man-to-man, six, eight players there, closing (down).
“(Ashley) Williams, (Phil) Jagielka, (Michael) Keane, (Leighton) Baines, all the guys, they are very good in one-againstone. We tried to find the way to attack them and we did it. (When the opposition) arrive once (in the box), score a goal, that can happen. Our amount of opportunities on target or close to the target was good. We were there all the time. We never gave up, with the spirit of the Mancunians.”
He added: “What we can do is try and create the chances. Maybe one day we’ll change, we’ll find it. “Last season we were the first or second team for creating clear chances. I think the first one. We just made (scored) 16 percent. In that level, it’s results. In our box, it was perfect. They arrived once. But OK, we will improve.”