Cardoner: Barcelona are not at war with Pique Barcelona Meeting between president and defender

Barcelona vice-president Jordi Cardoner has moved to make clear that the Barcelona board of directors are not at war with Gerard Pique, in the wake of his suspicions that they planted a story in the press which blamed the players for the team's poor start to the season.

Pique was clearly unhappy with the situation and in his role as one of the senior figures in the dressing room, especially over political matters, he made his frustrations clear in his interview after the victory over Getafe.

"There is no war with Pique," Cardoner admitted in an interview with Catalunya Radio.

"There has been a meeting between the president and Pique, which has been done to rectify a situation.

"Normality has returned and the players are at ease, and the fans are with the team, yesterday they showed great support."

Ernesto Valverde has come under significant pressure after the Champions League failures of his first two seasons in charge, yet Cardoner believes he is totally the right coach for the job.

"There have been questions over him after Liverpool and Rome," he explained.

"From the president, we were very strong in defending him because he has won to league titles and there is a positive environment in the dressing room.

"He has been able to balance this ecosystem and we give him all our support."

Neymar was a player of huge media interest throughout the summer, and for a time it was thought that Barcelona would make a move to re-sign the Brazilian, yet Cardoner believes a deal was made too difficult by all the conditions which needed to be met.

"What the players want is the best players around them and Neymar is a great player with a very good personal relationship with the team," Cardoner intimated.

"We had to value the decision, we needed to sell someone and PSG didn't intend to let the player go, it's a topic that will continue to be discussed.

"We don't want this to be a distraction, to speak about a signing now isn't right because we have to respect our players and the players belonging to other clubs."