IMO this just closes the door to him walking for free, If the club REALLY wants him, then the next play will be to start negotiating.
It's clear he was hoping that he would be able to leave for free, but there is no way messi and his team didn't consider that barca would fight this and he had hoped the club wouldn't pull this kind of move. I assume on our side we did see this coming and it's why we've downplayed any links to him as much as possible, knowing that barca would be even less likely to let him walk if they knew he was going to reunite with pep and some of the other barca old boys.
He makes it very clear in the message that he loves the club and that he's very much being not allowed to leave, feeding even more into the hate the current president has from the fans.
Remember messi is a player the club have sought after for a long time, and they have never been this close to getting him, I fully expect us to start negotiating with barca for him now.
It's clear he was hoping that he would be able to leave for free, but there is no way messi and his team didn't consider that barca would fight this and he had hoped the club wouldn't pull this kind of move. I assume on our side we did see this coming and it's why we've downplayed any links to him as much as possible, knowing that barca would be even less likely to let him walk if they knew he was going to reunite with pep and some of the other barca old boys.
He makes it very clear in the message that he loves the club and that he's very much being not allowed to leave, feeding even more into the hate the current president has from the fans.
Remember messi is a player the club have sought after for a long time, and they have never been this close to getting him, I fully expect us to start negotiating with barca for him now.