Rakitic: I don't want to stay in Barcelona to just enjoy walking on the beach Barcelona Croatian has barely featured this season

Barcelona have looked to other midfield options rather than Ivan Rakitic thus far this season, and the Croatian is becoming visibly frustrated at his lack of match opportunities, suggesting he didn't stay in Barcelona for the perks the city enjoys.

Ernesto Valverde has instead preferred to utilise the talents of Arthur Melo, Frenkie de Jong and Sergio Busquets for the most part, and Rakitic has been totally left out in the cold.

"I want to play, I didn't stay in Barcelona just to enjoy the city and walk on the beach," Rakitic explained to Croatian media sources.

"I don't know what will happen, I want to play for Barcelona and I will do my best to change this situation in the next few matches.

"I have a contract for a couple of years and there is no better place to play than at Barcelona, the best club in the world."

Having missed the last international break due to personal reasons, Rakitic was on the offensive when reacting to claims he didn't want to be selected for Croatia.

"It was painful for me to read and hear that I didn't want to play for the national team," he bemoaned.

"It's simply not true; nobody has a greater desire and more love for Croatia than me.

"I wasn't 100 percent sure what was happening with the transfer market and I didn't want to be a negative influence on my teammates. I thought it was better for me and the team to be absent and clear my head."

After having been rumoured to be part of any deal which brought Neymar back to the Camp Nou, Rakitic has made clear that he did indeed speak to Barcelona's president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, about his future.

"I talked to the people inside the club," he added.

"Everyone knew the other options I had, it wasn't a secret.

"I still want the best for Barcelona, but I want to fight so that the whole team sees that I'm ready every single time I go out onto the pitch.

"I want to thank the fans for this past weekend [where they showed their support for Rakitic in the game against Sevilla], but if it becomes clear that nothing can change, there will be another discussion."