Leo Messi tells Koeman he still has doubts about staying at Barça

Ronald Koeman and Leo Messi had a face to face meeting in Barcelona this evening to discuss the superstar's future at the club. Leo explained that he still had doubts about staying at Barça after the crushing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich. Koeman's main task now is winning over the club icon and convincing him that he's the man to turn the ship in the right direction.

Koeman understands the doubts Messi has - and they are very real. It's the first time that Messi has genuinely felt like it might be time to call an end to his time at the club.

It shows how important Leo is to any project at Barça that less than 24 hours after he signed his contract, Koeman was meeting with Messi to explain his plans for the team going forward.

On holiday

Messi has been on holiday with his family in La Cerdanya when he received a phone call from the club. He didn't need too long to think about it before he was in his car to meet with Koeman and discuss his feelings. Leo knows that as captain of the team, it's important he plays a positive role in the changes the club wants to make.

Koeman is a huge fan of Messi's and wants to know as much about the man as possible in order to get him back on side. The meeting was said to have gone well and that both parties are open to future talks about the status of the proposed changes.

Time to reflect

Despite the meeting going better than expected, at least better than it started, Leo still wants some time to consider his future plans. He's got a year left on his current contract and Barça are hopeful he'll extend his contract for at least another year. Despite those doubts, Leo has never told Barça he wants to leave, only that he has doubts about the current direction of the club. 

Barça know it's vital that Messi is on board with Koeman otherwise this experiment will go south quickly. No one wants to be the coach who Messi didn't believe in. There's also hope that one Leo is back training and sees Koeman's methods, he will be won over. Barça must do everything possible to turn this situation around and to do that, they need Messi to be pulling in the same direction.