Messi’s criticism of Abidal shows possible rift inside Barcelona’s football team
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Barcelona is in crisis after captain Lionel Messi lashed out at the club’s Sporting Director Eric Abidal for accusing the players of not working hard enough under Ernesto Valverde.
CNN reports that the former Real Betis coach Quique Setien replaced Valverde in January despite Barca being top of La Liga and having progressed to the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Abidal, who played alongside Messi at Camp Nou and now acts as Barca’s technical secretary, held an interview with Sport which was published on Tuesday.
During the chat, the Frenchman suggested that part of the dressing room was not performing up to expectations under former coach Ernesto Valverde.
“Our department has to have their homework done because you never know what can happen,” said Abidal. “We started working on the coach during my first summer. We looked for information and after, the president decided to renew him. We took it on because it was a club decision, but we already saw the problem wasn’t to do with results but that it was an internal thing. It’s never easy to take that decision but after the Clasico on December 18, we started to concrete his exit.”
Abidal made it clear that Valverde, even winning the Super Cup, would still have left.
“We watched the games and not the results, but how we played, the tactics, the work of the players who don’t play a lot. I’m focused on those details. Many players weren’t satisfied or working a lot and there was also an internal communication problem. The relationship between the coach and the dressing room has always been good but there are things as an ex-player that I could smell. I told the club what I thought and we reached a decision.’
