Stoichkov: We're giving the best player in the club's history a kick up the backside

Hristo Stoichkov has been very critical of Barcelona with their handling of Lionel Messi.

The Argentine requested to leave the Catalan club via burofax on Tuesday, but Josep Maria Bartomeu is not willing to let him go.

"We're erasing a myth, we're giving the best player in Barcelona's history a kick up the backside," Stoichkov told TUDN.

"We're staining his name, his charisma.

"I'm a member, so that's why I'm saying we're staining it.

"This board has ruined everything.

"It seems as though they want to pit the fans against the players.

"I won successive league titles, the club's first European Cup - I don't know how to repay the love from the fans.

"But this board doesn't show its face. It pays journalists to add fuel to the flames.

"As a club, it's pitiful."

Stoichkov was another Barcelona legend who didn't leave the club on amicable .

"I don't know why we, the players who have made history at Barcelona, are always shown the back door," he added.

"They think we're going to bother them because we want to take the presidency off them or something like that.

"I don't know what goes through their heads."