LIONEL MESSI is "losing patience" with Barcelona and directed another attack at the board.

The club captain, 32, was among the first-team players to release a statement on Monday to confirm the squad are taking 70 per cent pay cuts.

The reduction in wages is to help ensure the rest of the club's staff can continue to be paid as normal during the coronavirus crisis, with no football suspended for the foreseeable future.

But the European press, especially in Spain, insist Messi is unhappy with the way operations are being run higher up at Barcelona.

Messi and his team-mates insisted they would have taken the pay cut, regardless of extra pressure applied by the board.

In the statement to announce the news, they said: "Then there is the latest drama, concerning a pay cut to help the club tackle the loss of income associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

"It doesn't surprise us that the club wanted to put us back under the microscope and try to pressure us into doing something we were always going to do.

"If the agreement has been delayed in the last few days, it's simply because we were finding a formula to help the club and also our employees in such difficult times."

The statement added: “The time has come to announce that, aside from the reduction of 70 per cent of our salary during the state of emergency, we will also make contributions so that the club’s employees can collect 100 percent of their salaries while this situation lasts.

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