Piqué: "We offered to alter our salaries so Neymar could return to Barcelona"
The Barcelona central defender spoke to Spanish radio station Cadena Ser and revealed the players' plan to bring back the Brazilian.
Barcelona central defender Gerard Piqué spoke to the 'El Larguero' sports programme on Spanish radio station Cadena Ser and revealed that the Barça players had made a concerted bid to help the club bring back PSG player Neymar, who left in the summer of 2017.
Asked what the players had done, Pique said "We didn't stump up money. What we said to the president was whether we could change our contracts because we knew there was a Financial Fair Play issue... so we said to the president, rather than earn something in year one, we could earn it in year two or three or four.
At the end of the day we want to go along with what the club is doing and if we can help the club, in this case avoiding a financial fair problem, we've got no problem in doing that. Rather than reducing our salary it was about finding a formula so that if the club wanted to sign Ney they could. At the time they thought it was a good idea, but then other problems cropped up".
Piqué was also asked if there is a chance Neymar could come back to Barcelona. "In football anything can happen and every year just makes that clearer. We told Neymar, 'you're going to a golden prison'. But in football things can happen and you find the door open", replied Piqué.
Messi and Griezmann's relationship
Piqué also spoke about the Messi-Griezmann relationship, saying "It's really good. Everything gets blown out of proportion. Leo and Grizzi get on just like Leo with Dembélé or Pedo or Villa. They get on well. With Luis, they're practically like brothers and then after that there are different relationships. Just because he doesn't get on with Griezmann like he does with Luis doesn't mean they don't get on well.