Juliano Belletti: Barça planning next season without Neymar

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“You have to plan the season with the players who are here and not be worried about whether Neymar is coming or not”

Barcelona UEFA Champions League hero Juliano Belletti has spoken out about the situation of his compatriot, Neymar, in an interview with Mundo Deportivo.

Belletti was asked whether he saw Neymar back at Barça, and he responded:

Not right now, because everything that is happening is very complicated. There is a lot of talk, but he says nothing, we read a lot about this topic but all we know is that he is training with PSG and that Barça is planning this season without him. Valverde is playing his friendly matches, looking for the best team to start the season, now the players who were in the Copa América are back ... so you have to plan the season with the players who are here and not be worried about whether Neymar is coming or not. Well, if you plan the season with him and in the end he doesn’t come ... you have to work thinking as if you’re a company and, right now, it’s time to work with the employees there are.

Belletti, who scored the winning goal in the 2006 Champions League final against Arsenal, has been working as an ambassador for the club since 2015.

He said what he most cared about was whether Neymar was happy, be it at Paris Saint-Germain or Barcelona. He rejected suggestions that he was unhappy at PSG, instead saying it was “complicated.”

Is Belletti hinting that Barça want Neymar to make a public plea? This idea was rumored a few weeks back, but it never came to pass. However, notice Belletti’s language here.

“He says nothing,” Belletti says, and later hints that perhaps Neymar is satisfied in his current situation.

The former fullback is accompanying Barça during their preseason tour of the United States.

Source: barcablaugranes.com