because, if not, we are all being dirtied
and it feeds comments that are made
and are not true.”
It was an angry response from a player
who has been carrying Barcelona for
some time and prompted the inevitable
speculation about his future. The 32-
year-old’s contract runs until 2021 but
contains a clause which allows him to
leave for free this summer.
Meanwhile, Barca players past and
present lined up to defend Messi.
“He has every right in the world to be
angry with Abidal,” said Rivaldo, while
club captain Jordi Alba declared: “This
club gets enough crap thrown at it from
the outside so we shouldn’t be throwing
crap at ourselves.”
Former French striker Christoph
Dugarry told French radio that Barca was
“a club of clowns”, while sports daily AS
ran with the headline “Crisis FC”.
Club president Josep Maria Bartomeu
met with Abidal ahead of a Copa del Rey
game away at Athletic Bilbao and they
agreed the Frenchman would carry on.
But a shock defeat to Athletic merely
added to the club’s woes. Only 16 first-
team players travelled to Bilbao, while
Samuel Umtiti arrived separately due tohis involvement in a court case over
allegations that he had trashed his rented
villa, causing £150,000 of damage.
Further setbacks came in the form
of injuries to Luis Suarez and Ousmane
Dembele, which served only to highlight
Abidal’s failure to sign a striker in the
January transfer window.
Abidal also came under fire from Xavi
over reports that the former midfielder
had been offered the coach’s job ahead
of Setien but had turned it down to stay
in Qatar with Al Sadd.
Abidal denied that he had offered Xavi
the job saying: “If he has an offer then let
him show it.” But Xavi let it be known on
Catalan radio that he was “very annoyed”
at Abidal’s comments.
As always with Barcelona, nothing
is straightforward.
John Holmesdaleinternal. It’s never easy to make
these decisions, but after El Clasico
on December 18 we began to specify
things surrounding his departure.”
Setien, an advocate of attacking
football, is seen as being more in tune
with Johan Cruyff’s coaching ideals than
his predecessor Valverde, who claimed
back-to-back Liga titles but won few
points for artistic impression.
“He [Setien] has the DNA,” Abidal
argued. “He has the idea of working
on the small details and players who
aren’t playing feel part of the group.
“Communication has to flow, and
this makes the team come together
and compete better.”
Abidal’s comments drew a furious,
immediate and highly unusual response
from Messi. Within 90 minutes of the
interview going online, the Argentinian
used his Instagram account to express
his frustration.
He posted an image of the Abidal
interview, circled the particular quote
about player work rates in red ink and
commented underneath: “Sincerely, I
don’t like to do these things but I think
that people have to be responsible for
their jobs and own their decisions.
“The players [are responsible] for what
happens on the pitch and we are the first
to admit when we haven’t been good.
The heads of the sports department
have to take their responsibilities too and
above all own the decisions they make.”
“Finally, I think that when players are
talked about, names should be given
In charge...(from left)
coach Quique Setien,
president Josep Maria
Bartomeu and Eric
Abidal“When players are talked about, names
should be given because, if not, we are
all being dirtied and it feeds comments
that are made and are not true”
Lionel MessiPEOPLE AND PLACES IN THE NEWS