Pique: Whether Valverde liked it or not, the Barcelona players were going out in New York Barcelona Tells tale in new documentary series

Numerous inside stories of incidents that took place behind the scenes at Barcelona are set to come to light with the release of the documentary 'Matchday'.

Gerard Pique features in the first episode of a ten-part series to be released on Rakuten TV, the club's sponsor and whose president the defender is business partners with.

One moment in particular stands out where the defender speaks about the 2017 pre-season in New York in which the players were intent on enjoying the nightlife of the Big Apple, much to the opposition of their coach.

"We told [Ernesto] Valverde that we were going out in New York. He didn't understand. He told us: I see no reason for you to go out," said Pique of last summer's preseason tour of the United States.

"We had up to five meetings with him to make him understand that we needed to have a holiday.

"Whether he liked it or not, we were going out," Pique says in the first episode.

It shows the Catalan defender relaxing ahead of a match watching basketball on TV as well as how he ended up at an official Rakuten event where he tells the aforementioned story of Valverde in New York, which was also the night of the famous photo with Neymar, which Pique posted with the caption "he's staying" days before the Brazilian joined PSG.

Pique also recounts the time when Madrid players told him that Julen Lopetegui appeared to be on his way out of the club towards the end of 2018, before it was eventually confirmed.

The episode also shows some unique moments, such as Pique making jokes on the pitch and Arthur's positional problems during a match.