Rakitic slams Barcelona for Neymar transfer

Barcelona star Ivan Rakitic has slammed the club for letting Neymar leave the club for Paris Saint Germain this summer, after triggering his release clause.

In the summer transfer, Brazilian moved to the French giants for a world record signing of €222 million from Barcelona.

BAD DECISION

Since the transfer, Neymar has gone and impressed on every level in France, be it in the Ligue 1 or even in the Champions League against Celtic.

The 25-year-old has already scored 5 goals in all competitions in 6 starts and provided 4 assists in Ligue 1.

In his time at Camp Nou, Neymar was involved in a total of 164 goals, scoring 105 goals and assisting 59 in 186 appearances.

RAKITIC’S SAY

Part of fee bought from Neymar is already spent on the likes of Paulinho and Ousmane Dembele. But, the Croatian still thinks that Brazilian would be missed at Camp Nou.

Rakitic spoke to the BBC World Service: “For me personally, it was really hard, not only because he’s one of the biggest players; also, for me, he’s a big person.

“He was really important for our dressing room, and for me he’s one of the best guys I know in football.

“So for me it was really a bad decision because I liked to have him in my team.”

https://twitter.com/TheFCBdaily/status/911114160376868865

RESPECTS THE DECISION

The Croatian midfielder added: “We have to respect Neymar’s decision to move.

“If a team can buy him and he decides to leave Barcelona, we have to respect it and wish him the best [of] luck.

“Hopefully he can score a lot of goals and be happy in Paris, but we have to go on our way and be strong together without Neymar now.”

AUTHOR’S TAKE

Filling the void of Neymar who is a player of such high caliber would not be easy to fill in the Camp Nou outfit. However, the Catalans have bought Paulinho and Dembele and have registered a good start to the season after the loss to Real Madrid and are sitting at the top of the league table.