Barcelona rejects Lionel Messi's transfer request

Barcelona captain Lionel Messi had reportedly made a transfer suggestion to his club. However, the board rejected the request.

According to sources, the 32-year-old Argentine legend had asked Barca's newly-appointed manager, Quique Setien, to attempt to sign Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero.

A recent injury to Barcelona striker Luis Suarez means that the Catalan side is short in terms of attacking power. Football pundits claim that Suarez's injury not only hurts the numbers on the scoresheet but his invaluable connection with Messi will be missed in terms of the team's overall performance.

The Barca skipper, as reports claim, is currently looking for a player similar to Suarez, with whom he can build a spectacular on-field chemistry. Aguero shares the Argentine dressing room with Messi. As a result, Messi feels that his national teammate might be the best choice that his club has.

However, it has been claimed that Barcelona isn't currently interested in signing the Manchester City striker. In his last two Premier League appearances, Aguero scored five goals.

Aguero joined City in 2011. Since then, he has appeared in 360 games and scored 251 goals. In the process, he helped his side win four league titles within that time frame.

Soccer Laduma claims that Suarez would remain out of the team until April because of his ongoing injury. During Setien's first game for Barca, the newly appointed manager started with Antoine Griezmann, Ansu Fati, and Messi.

The Argentine predominantly took up the central position. It's expected that Barca's new boss might continue experimenting with Griezmann down the middle. Or else, he might also add a younger and cheaper forward to the team's attack within this month.

As of now, Setien claimed to be planning on working with the players he has at his disposal.

He said, "Right now we have to think about the players we have. The important thing is the philosophy. We might change things to our system, but we need to evaluate a lot and speak with the players. But the philosophy won't change. The reality is that until you're inside a club you don't know everything about it, everything is new. There is an extraordinary academy here and those players will train with us little by little."