Ilkay Gündogan’s post-Clásico rant a non-issue in Barcelona dressing room, says Xavi

The biggest topic of discussion in Barcelona land this week following the weekend loss in El Clásico was Ilkay Gündogan’s now infamous rant in which he appeared to question his teammates’ attitude and wanted to see a little more anger in their reaction to what was a frustrating, heartbreaking defeat.

Gündogan’s words followed by reports of his alleged discontent with the club led to a lot of noise from the outside about a potential issue between the team and the summer’s biggest signing, but Gündogan’s wife and Barça sporting director Deco quickly acted to end any controversy.

Barça boss Xavi Hernández was also asked about the situation in his press conference on Friday before the trip to Real Sociedad, and the coach insisted he and the dressing room had no issues with Gündogan’s words and there is no reason for controversy.

“We are all pursuing excellence. We didn’t see anything controversial in Gündo’s words, we agree with what he said. We did lose the Clásico because of our own mistakes. What he said was not controversial in the dressing room.

“He expressed the anger we all felt on the inside. His culture is different to ours. Look at Bayern and their loss this week, Thomas Müller came out publicly and criticized them too. No controversy. Same in our dressing room.

“We were all angry. It’s a non-issue.”

Source: Mundo Deportivo

And there you go. Can we all please just move on?