This morning, at a scheduled meet-the-press session after training, Dani Alves had to once again face a question about his future with the club.

“My intention is to continue working here but I will defend my interests resolutely. If we can reach an agreement fine but if not, that’s all right. I will not regret having to take that decision.”

“I’ll just leave it at that for I don’t want to be distracted by it. I want to stay, and am enjoying myself here. Whether I renew the contract or not, I won’t shirk my responsibility and my performance will not suffer as I am a professional.”

Moving on to the team’s recent run of form, he said, “We play better with each passing year, and if we want to continue winning things we need to enjoy ourselves, and that’s important. This team is a role-model in the way we work and how we apply ourselves in matches.”

“It was never easy like a walk in the park. It will always be difficult to win matches and score goals. You have to give a good account of what we had achieved so far. Yesterday was one of the most difficult grounds to conquer in the Primera Division but we managed to get a good result there. The truth is we are having a good run but that’s nothing to brag about. Remember, earlier in the season, we found it hard to finish off opponents but now we’re fine, and we need to continue working hard and stay humble.”

“We are not preoccupied by records as it will naturally come if we continue playing the way we are. Yes, total goals tally is a record to be broken and we want it but we are not too concerned about records when we broke the total points haul last season.”

Talking about his role in that set up, Dani explained, “I am to do what the team needs. If we need to win by pushing forward, then I’ll do a lot more attacking, and in the process, the other side will not be able to do the same. As we all know the best defence is a good offense.”

“We have assembled a great team having found a perfect balance between our defence and attack, and we are always ready to put in that extra effort to help out our teammates.”

Asked how he felt about racist rants directed at him from a small section of the Cornella-El Prat crowd, Dani shrugged, “I didn’t even notice it. Anyway I would never leave the pitch because of their insults.”

Finally, when asked how he rates Barcelona’s game against Espanyol last night, Dani Alves smiled and said, “To respect the way Mourinho assesses and values self achievements [who gave himself an 11 out of 10 rating], I would therefore give Barca a 12. 11 is outstanding so I give my team the maximum. With 12, we’re better than him.”