LIONEL MESSI admitted it will be difficult to turn around Barcelona’s “very bad” run – but he is willing to “fight for everything”.
The Argentine – who tried so hard to leave his boyhood club this summer – appeared to confirm his focus remains on turning around Barca’s fortunes.
Lionel Messi admitted it will be difficult to turn around Barcelona’s ‘very bad’ form
But he is aware the club are in a “very bad” situation as they face an uphill battle to re-find their former dominance.
Messi, 33, told Spanish TV station La Sexta: “Today I am fine. It is true that I had a very bad time during the summer and before, because of how the season ended.
“Then came the burofax [transfer request]. But now I feel good and wanting to fight for everything we have ahead.
“I’m excited even though the club is going through difficult times. These are difficult times, as for everyone.
“The club is really bad, very bad, it will be difficult to get back to where we were.”
Messi handed in a transfer request in August and tried to leave for free due to a stipulation in his contract.
But Barca argued the clause – which stated the forward could chose to leave at the end of any season – expired in the June.
To avoid dragging the club through the courts, Messi decided to stay but his contract is due to expire at the end of the current campaign.
Messi admitted it will be ‘difficult’ for Barca to return to their bestCredit: PA:Press Association
Opening up about the transfer sage, he said: “I will always be eternally grateful to the club.
“Everything the club gave me I earned and I deserved it for what I did.
“Then the moment came when I thought I had completed a cycle, that I deserved a change, that I needed to get out of all this.
“I knew that this was going to be a year of transition, with young people, but I wanted to continue fighting for more titles, for the Champions League, for the league.
“Then all that trouble started, with the president who started to filter things to make me look like the bad guy in the movie, but that was what I felt.
“It was a very difficult decision to make, because I wanted to leave the club of my life.
“My family didn’t want to move either, my children told me not to leave, but it was what I felt at that time.”
Lionel Messi arrives home in Argentina for the holidays ahead of transfer speculation
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
