Valverde talks Frenkie de Jong, his Barca future and January transfers

The latest from the Barcelona boss

Ernesto Valverde faced the press on Wednesday ahead of the second leg of Barcelona’s Copa del Rey last 16 tie against Levante.

He gave little away about his team selection and refused to say if Lionel Messi would play.

He also talked about his future, Frenkie de Jong and Barca’s plans for the January transfer window.

Here are the best bits:

Valverde on team selection

It’s a decisive match tomorrow. We hope that there is a great atmosphere and the fans help us.

We have to try and use the best best players we can to win the match, but we also need to think about Sunday as we have an important game.

Valverde on using Barca B players

It’s a decisive match, we’ll see. I’ll have to evaluate that. I haven’t finished the list. We’ll see how the players are in the training session and depending on that I’ll make a decision.

Valverde on January transfers

We would like to reinforce what we have and we have players already with us. If it’s possible to improve the team, we will, if we can’t we won’t. It seems like all the questions today are about players that are elsewhere and we need to worry about the players that are here.

Valverde on Frenkie de Jong

If Frenkie de Jong ends up at PSG or any other place, I can’t determine the future, he’s a great player and we’ll see where he ends up. When we see that we can make a judgement. Right now he plays for Ajax and we try not to talk about players who play at other teams.

No I haven’t spoken to any player, absolutely not and nobody speaks on behalf of me.

Valverde on his future

I don’t understand why people are so intrigued with all of this. I have a contact that’s in force and when there’s something to be said about that, something will be said.

Every coach has their own idea, some sign five-year deals, others go year to year, it doesn’t matter how long your contract is, if things aren’t going well people are going to question you.

Source: barcablaugranes.com