Neymar turned to Lionel Messi and said: 'You had better get warmed-up'.

The star player's joke at the expense of his manager was symptomatic of the chaos that currently reigns at Barcelona.

They began 2015 in turmoil after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld FIFA's ban on them signing players for the next 12 months and are now in full-blown meltdown with Messi one of several senior players at loggerheads with Luis Enrique, who could be replaced as early as Wednesday despite the board's original intention to give him two games to save himself.

The players' biggest complaint towards the manager, who is yet to name an unchanged team this season, is that they don't know where they stand with him. 

Messi, Neymar and Dani Alves were all given two extra days' holiday over Christmas only to then be told when they returned that they had not trained enough to play the first game of the year.

Messi's desire to play in every match – something that Pep Guardiola nearly always made sure he did – means he took the decision badly and failed to show for training on Monday complaining of gastroenteritis. 

Sick to the stomach of his manager would be another interpretation; the two men are believed to have argued both during Friday's training session and on Sunday in San Sebastian.

Monday's session was open to the public with school children still on their Christmas holidays allowed to watch their heroes train, but Messi was at home following Chelsea on Instagram instead.

He also follows Beyonce and Manchester City so it would be taking it too far to see such a move on social media as a 'come and get me' message but the timing was telling all the same.

Chelsea fans hopeful he could end up at their club – he also followed Cesc Fabregas and Filipe Luis on Instagram – should probably bear in mind that when Messi is unhappy at Barcelona it tends to be the people he is unhappy with that move on.

Enrique should be given this week's cup game with Elche and Sunday's showdown with Fernando Torres' Atletico Madrid to save his job but Messi is by no means alone in being unhappy at the head coach. 

Gerard Pique, new signing Ivan Rakitic and Neymar are others and, far from just being personal gripes, there are overriding concerns over the way the coach has the team playing.

The manager who took over in the summer has a reputation for falling out with star players. He upset both Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi at Roma and, with Sporting Director Andoni Zubizarreta already fired and assistant Carles Puyol having quit soon after, the spotlight now falls on him.

(dailymail.co.uk)