As Neymar was being linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain, Gerard Pique caused a stir by tweeting a photo and insisting that the forward was going to stay at the Camp Nou, but he has now admitted that he already knew the transfer was on the cards.

Questioned about the tweet during Barcelona's US tour, Pique claimed that it was simply his intuition that the Brazilian would remain in Catalonia, but now he has changed his story once again.

"I don't feel like I've been tricked," he told reporters in the pre-Supercopa press conference on Saturday evening.

"Now that everything has taken place I can explain how it all went down.

"At [Lionel] Messi's wedding, Neymar already had this idea that he would leave [Barcelona].

"The day that I posted the 'se queda' ['he stays', in English] tweet, I already knew that he was 100 percent leaving, but it was my final shot.

"He was annoyed at me.

"I'm sure he had his reasons.

"In the end, we cannot judge him as he has taken a brave decision.

"He performed really well for us and has now left money in the bank, while we remember him fondly."

Speaking about those 222 million euros brought in by Neymar's sale, Pique had his say on how difficult it could be to spend it.

"It is a tough time to sign and everyone wants to take advantage of the fact that we have 222m euros to spend," he said.

"The club must think well about what it does.

"This team can guarantee [success], but new players can still be signed and it will be better because of the competition."

The defender also talked about Sunday's Supercopa de Espana first leg against Real Madrid, pointing out how difficult it will be to win.

"It is always special to play against Real Madrid," he said.

"We will have to play a really great game to beat them.

"There is a second leg on Wednesday, so tomorrow won't decide everything, and we'll try not to concede and to control the game."

The match kicks off at 22:00 CET on Sunday evening.