Gerard Pique is unsure whether he would have stayed at Barcelona had former manager Pep Guardiola remained at the club beyond 2012 after the now Manchester City boss lost faith in the Spain defender.
The centre back, who has played over 250 league games for Barca, wrote in the Player’s Tribune that a year after winning a Liga and Champions League double under Guardiola in 2011, he was left contemplating his future at the club.
He said this was because he could not fully buy into the Catalan coach’s notoriously intense off-field demands and Guardiola’s trust in the player had been knocked.
“I had the worst season of my career. Everything seemed to 
fall apart in 2012. I don’t know why,” said the 31-year-old who started out in Barca’s youth ranks before joining Manchester United in 2004 and returned 
to the Nou Camp four years later.
“Perhaps I had lost the fear that drove me to that level. But for whatever reason, I started questioning myself. As the season went on, Pep started to lose faith in me. For the first three seasons, we had a phenomenal relationship.
“I still revere Pep as a manager. But the truth is, it was an extremely hard time. 
“He wanted his players to be obsessed with football 24 hours a day, and at that point in my life, 
I didn’t understand it. I wasn’t 
as committed to that philosophy.”
Pique was omitted from his side’s Clasico meeting with rivals Real Madrid and missed the first leg of their Champions League semi-final defeat to Chelsea in 2012.
He was recalled for the second leg, only to leave the field with concussion in the first half. It was a blow that made him consider his future.
“That season really made me think about my career, and my life. It was a wake-up call. When our team was playing for it all, Pep didn’t believe in me anymore. Then, when he finally turned to me, I got knocked out cold,” he said.
“Sometimes I think about what would have happened if I had woken up the next day and found out that we had gone through against Chelsea. I was out with a head injury for weeks, so I definitely wouldn’t have played in the final.
“Maybe we would have won the Champions League. Maybe Pep would have decided to stay at Barca. Maybe he never would have regained his trust in me. Maybe I would be at another club right now.”
Guardiola left Barcelona at the end of the 2011-12 season and took a sabbatical before joining Bayern Munich where he spent three years before joining Manchester City.
Pique has won three Champions League and six Liga 
titles plus five King’s Cup, five Spanish Super Cup, two European Super Cup and three FIFA Club World Cup trophies with Barca.

Potential Russian swansong for Iniesta as China draws closer
 Barcelona and Spain midfield star Andres Iniesta has indicated this summer’s World Cup in Russia could signal his international swansong. Iniesta, 33, also hinted he could finally be lured from a rarely-seen ‘contract for life’ with the Spanish league giants, signed last year, to cap his sparkling club career with a stint in China’s Super League.
“At the moment, given my age, it could be my last international appearance,” Iniesta told Radio Cadena Ser yesterday when asked about the 2018 World Cup to be held in Russia from June 14 to July 15.
“It’s quite similar to what could happen to me at club level. I don’t want to be there just to make up the numbers, I don’t need to be there (at Barcelona and Spain) just so I can say I’m there.”
Iniesta, considered one of world’s greatest creative midfielders, has been increasingly linked with a move to China despite signing a deal with Barcelona last autumn that effectively allowed him to decide when he would finish his career with the Catalan giants.
The diminutive playmaker said his physical condition could decide his Barcelona future for him, adding: “If I remain it will be because I feel 200% in virtually every department. And if I don’t (stay), it will be because I don’t feel myself capable.”
Iniesta, a 2010 World Cup winner who helped steer Barca to four Champions League titles between 2006-2015, is expected to declare his future intentions to Barcelona by a deadline of April 30.
He added: “It’s something that has to happen sooner or later, I haven’t decided yet.”