Manchester United and Chelsea target Gerard Pique has given a hint that he could stay at Barcelona to win back the faith of new manager Luis Enrique after losing his spot in the team. The defender’s last appearance in the team came against Real Madrid and since then the likes of Javier Mascherano, Marc Batra and Jeremy Mathieu have been preferred over him.
In a recent interview, Pique revealed, “Enrique and I have a player-Coach relationship, as many do in the football world. In the end he is the one who decides and the players try to do what he wants from us.”
“I think that not playing two or three games has made me inconsistent. Barcelona is my life and I don’t plan on leaving. I will continue to fight for a place.
“I appreciated what Vicente del Bosque has said to me, particularly with the situation I’m in at Barcelona, but I always think about the present and the future, not look back.
“Now I think about these next two games and then there’s a period with Barca, where I will try to play as much as possible and get the Coach to trust me.
Manchester United and Chelsea were being linked with the 27-year old in the last few weeks. United have struggled defensively this season and want to re-sign the defender who had a four-year spell spanning from 2004 to 2008 with the club. Chelsea too are after the Spanish international as they seek a long term replacement for club captain John Terry who is already 33 years old.
Reports indicate that Pique will cost somewhere around £24m as he is contracted with Barcelona until 2019. Despite strong rumours, it was always going to unlikely that Pique was going to be sold by Barcelona as their transfer embargo does not permit them to sign any players in the next two transfer windows.