Luis Suarez Slams Barcelona Over Atletico Exit And Wasn’t Surprised By Messi Reaction To Furor

While on international duty with Uruguay, ex-FC Barcelona striker Luis Suarez has taken the opportunity to criticize his former club, and the manner in which he was recently driven out of it to domestic rivals Atletico Madrid.

Following the brutal 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals, Quique Setien was immediately fired and Ronald Koeman was installed as his successor.

Charged with leading a revolution at the Camp Nou, the Dream Team legend’s first port of call was to tell high-paid stars that they had become surplus to requirements in the Catalan capital, with Suarez chief among them in addition to Arturo Vidal, Ivan Rakitic and Samuel Umtiti.

“I’d been at Barcelona for six years and there were other ways to talk to me, [to] tell me that the club planned to change its mind,” began Suarez on the matter. “But the forms [of doing it] weren’t good and that also bothered Leo [Messi]. He knows what we’ve been through and how badly we had it at the time.”

“I wasn’t surprised that Messi supported me publicly because I know him too well,” said Suarez of a controversial Instagram post in which the Argentine blasted Barca’s higher-ups. “I knew the pain he felt, like he said and as I said. The ways [they used], the feeling you’re getting kicked out of [the club], that is what hurts the most.”

“Those days, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, until it was time to [make my Atletico] debut, were very complicated,” Suarez said of his eventual departure. “I cried about what I was going through. I didn’t take the club’s messages very well that they were looking for a solution to change my [environment]. Because of the ways [they used], more than anything, because one has to accept when a cycle [has been completed].”

Scoring a 39th minute penalty in Montevideo last night, Suarez helped Uruguay overcome Vidal’s Chile 2-1 in the Conmebol World Cup qualifiers as Valencia’s Maxi Gomes netted a stoppage time winner.

On Tuesday, La Celeste face Ecuador prior to Suarez returning to the Spanish capital for Atleti’s La Liga and UCL commitments.