MADRID, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- FC Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde avoided the questions over the possible return to the club of Neymar on Thursday when he spoke to the press ahead of the club's Liga Santander opener away to Athletic Club Bilbao this Friday night.
The Neymar "saga" has turned into the long-running soap-opera of the summer, with Barca apparently dueling it out with Real Madrid for the player who abandoned them two years ago.
"I am to one side of all of these questions. I am focused entirely on the team and the players I have in my team," said Valverde.
"Neymar is a Paris Saint Germain player and we will see what happens, but I am very happy with the squad I have and I don't know what will happen in the future," he said.
Valverde said it was "inconvenient" to kick off the new season with the possibility of new arrivals to his squad and also with the chance that some players could still leave the club.
"The logical thing would be to start the league with the transfer market closed and knowing who we have. I don't think it's good that we kick off and then there are 15 days of uncertainty," he said, before repeating he was happy with his current squad.
"You never consider that your players are not the best and the squad I have on August 31 will also be the best," commented Valverde.
The Barca coach also discussed Friday's game which sees him return to face a club he coached on two separate occasions.
"It's a difficult game to start and we know the potential of the San Mames stadium - we have it marked on the fixture list as a difficult place to visit, but we want to start the season well and win our third consecutive league title," said Valverde, who implied that Leo Messi would miss the opening game as he is recovering from a calf injury.
