Barcelona vice-president Jordi Mestre has insisted that no Blaugrana player would criticise their team like Cristiano Ronaldo did after Real Madrid’s Saturday loss to Atletico Madrid.
Ronaldo bemoaned the necessity to use squad players against Atleti due to the absence of Gareth Bale, Marcelo and Pepe through injury, saying “it’s not the same” when the likes of Lucas Vazquez, Jese and Mateo Kovacic are in the matchday squad.
Ronaldo also claimed “if we were all at my level, maybe we would be leaders,” and Mestre does not think any Barca players would speak in such a way, no matter the situatio:
“Our team’s players would never say what Cristiano said. The club monitors a lot of things before signing players. Honestly, I could not imagine one of our players saying what Cristiano said.”
Ronaldo apologised to his Real Madrid team-mates ahead of a training session on Monday and attempted to clarify comments he made following the derby defeat.
Some 40 hours after losing 1-0 to rivals Atletico, Real’s player were reunited on Monday in the Valdebebas training complex.
Almost all was negative, and much had to do with Ronaldo’s outburst in the mixed zone.
There was also criticism for the club’s medics, their preparations in pre-season and the team’s current performance, as well as a rousing defence of his own talent and statistics.
The consensus was that Ronaldo had shown arrogance and disrespect to his team-mates in his attempt to highlight his own performances.
Ronaldo’s Madrid team-mates, meanwhile, are understood to have played down the significance of the Portugal international’s outburst.
Without a doubt, bridges will need to be mended amongst the players in the Madrid dressing room, and this was a good start to a tough week. Wednesday brings a visit to Levante minus Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Dani Carvajal, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and perhaps Pepe as well.
On Saturday Celta Vigo come to the capital, as a forerunner to the massive Champions League clash against Roma on Tuesday.
