Gerard Pique has clashed with West Ham manager Julen Lopetehui over whether or not the defender was forced to apologise over political views.

While Julen Lopetegui has managed the likes of Spain and Real Madrid, his successes outside of Sevilla are rather minimal.

The gaffer famously got sacked by the Spanish national team for negotiating a contract with Madrid just two days before the 2018 World Cup started. However, this is not his only controversy from his reign.

Barcelona legend Gerard Pique has recently claimed that Lopetegui tried to force him to publicly apologise in 2017 over his support for a vote for Catalonian independence. “Surprisingly, that night the coach and the captain, who were Julen Lopetegui and Sergio Ramos, met me,” Pique stated. “They said to me, ‘Gerard, you have to apologise. You have positioned yourself very much in favour of Catalonia’.”

“I told them that I believed that I positioned myself with the right to vote and to be able to decide, so I was not going to make any statement or ask for forgiveness for it. Julen Lopetegui had already written down what I had to say on a piece of paper. He told me that tomorrow, I have to attend a press conference.”

“I went to the room, read the paper, threw it in the bin and said, ‘Look, if you want me to do a press conference I will do it, but it will be my way’. I will say that I am not going to ask for forgiveness, I am warning you. From that point on, every time I went with the national team it was s*** and whistles”

Lopetegui has reportedly denied that this is the case, saying that this is a twisted and exaggerated recollection of events. He also says there are multiple witnesses who can account to the fact that he purely gave some advice on how to deal with the situation rather than forcing him to say sorry.