Despite so much speculation it was pretty surprising to see Neymar actually stay at PSG until January at least. Some reports are emerging which show the extent to which some Barcelona players wanted to see him come back to Spain.
According to a report in Sport, Neymar was willing to pay €20m himself and some of the senior Barcelona players were also willing to put up some of their own money to make the deal happen. They suggest that’s how important the players saw the return of Neymar being to the side.
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The story goes on to suggest that with these additional funds a deal could have been done, but the Barca board thought the deal didn’t make financial sense and thought it would be crazy if they gave into all of PSG’s demands.
Unsurprisingly not every Barca player was willing to do this and the story does suggest a possible split happening in the changing room.
There’s a suggestion that the dressing room is splitting between those who want Neymar and those who back new signing Antonie Griezmann.
Worryingly that does almost suggest that the Frenchman could have been the player to make way in the starting XI if Neymar had come “home”. He will be glad it didn’t happen and he now gets the full season to impose himself and show the club and fans that they don’t need to sign Neymar next Summer.