Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez criticizes Barcelona club decisions

"I spent six years at Barcelona and never had a problem, quite the opposite. For the past three years, I have been saying that Barcelona needs a young '9' to start adapting. They never brought in someone who could compete with me, I always met the club's needs," said the Atlético de Madrid forward to ESPN.

"I deserved the respect that I had earned on the field before finding out through the press. When a coach comes and says that he doesn't count on me after the board announced that there would be player changes, it raises doubts about whether it was the coach or the board," he added.

The top scorer said that he would never sign with Real Madrid and that if he scored against the Catalan team, he wouldn't celebrate.

"But I would point to a certain place," he said.

He also suggested that his "great relationship" with Lionel Messi may have influenced the decision to declare him dispensable.

"We constantly sought each other out, but for the good of the team. Maybe they wanted me to play with more teammates. That could be something that is related. I don't see any reason why they would want to separate us because we got along well on the field," he analyzed.

The Uruguayan said that Messi went through a "difficult" and "complicated" moment when he announced his intention to leave Barcelona and that the club should have respected his desire to change teams.

He also gave his opinion on his new coach at Atlético de Madrid, Argentine Diego Simeone, and stated that he wasn't "surprised at all" by his way of working because he already knew what kind of coach he is.

"He is very strict, he works a lot on the tactical aspect. I found a very good group of people, with a lot of desire and ambition, wanting to grow and win things," he said.