MY ACCOUNT
Neymar is concerned by leaks from the Paris Saint-Germain dressing room and says they must “walk together” ahead of a Champions League clash with Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
Leaders PSG suffered a 3-1 defeat to Monaco on Saturday after being dumped out of the Coupe de France by Marseille, increasing the pressure on head coach Christophe Galtier.
Neymar was reportedly involved in a heated exchanged with the Ligue 1 champions’ sporting advisor Luis Campos and clashed with team-mates following the loss to Monaco, leading to talk the club are looking to sell the Brazil forward.
The former Barcelona man did not deny there were heated exchanges at the weekend, but believes such disagreements should not come to light.
He said on the eve of the first leg of the round of 16 tie against Bayern: “It happened, a little discussion, we didn’t agree. It happens to us every day, but I love them all, it’s like with my girlfriend.
“Football is not just about love, not just friendship. There is respect but it helps to have discussions. We are not used to losing. When there are defeats, of course that disturbs us. It makes it part of the process to improve.
“For the locker room, sometimes lies comes out in the press and it goes around the world. It happened that rumours came out at key moments of the season.
“We have to find out what’s going on. It’s not normal for stories to come out in the press, it has to stay between us. We have to walk together. When there’s news like that, we’re angry. I guarantee you a lot of information is wrong, some is true.”
Galtier is pleased that his players are prepared to say what they think but stressed they must listen to him.
He said: “When there is frustration, it has to come out. I have been leading this way for years. You have to listen to them, but they also have to listen to me.
“There is frustration that breeds anger. We talked, I listened to them, I hope they listened to me too.”
Neymar is at a loss to explain why PSG have slipped up as they prepare to do battle with the Bundesliga leaders at Parc des Princes.
He added: “I don’t have any explanations. I think that every club has moments of difficulty.
“As a team, we have to be united, focused. It’s good that these difficulties are happening now. We are aware that there are flaws, but we want to improve and show the best version of PSG.”
The 31-year-old is also prepared to take criticism of his performances on the chin.
“I feel very good, physically and mentally,” he said. “Some games things are not going very well. There are also games where you want to do everything, but you can’t.
“The criticisms are legitimate. Everyone has their opinion, their point of view. I respect that. I’m doing my best for the club and for the team. I will do it until the end of the season.”
