“Doubts, doubts and more doubts,” ran the headline Wednesday on the front page of Catalan daily Sport regarding Neymar.
PSG has been attempting to lure the 25-year-old Brazilian to France and are ready to pay off his 222 million euro ($256.8 million) release clause and make the player the best-paid participant on the world higher than Cristiano Ronaldo.
Last week Pique took to social media to clearly say “he’s staying” – however when pressed on the matter Tuesday before a pre-season friendly in the u. s. against Manchester United he was less certain of himself in his discussion.
Pique said, “It’s a personal opinion from the conversation that I had with him and my intuition,”
“But it’s not official,” he added. “And it’s not for me to say if he’s planning to stay or not.”
The position sent a shudder down the spine at Barcelona.
“Pique retracts and feeds the uncertainty,” the newspaper Sport said.
“The situation is eroding confidence at the club,” columnist Tomas Andreu wrote in Sport.
“What really hurts here is the silence of the player himself, which in the end says a great deal.”
Neymar departed the stadium without addressing reporters after starring in a 2-1 win over Juventus on Saturday.
“They (the club) didn’t expect the negotiations with PSG and the player to travel this far,” he said.
At the same conference, the Argentine defender Javier Mascherano said he had told Neymar to carefully weigh up the pros and cons.
Mascherano further said that all the players, as well as Lionel Messi, had spoken the player to ask him to remain.
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