Eric Abidal has kept his job at Barcelona despite upsetting the club's most important player Lionel Messi.
Barcelona's Technical Secretary had a two-hour meeting with president Josep Bartomeu on Wednesday night and was told his job was safe.
Meanwhile Messi’s spectacular fall-out with Abidal is unlikely to pave the way for a last-ditch bid to bring him to the Premier League from Manchester City.
Messi has a contract until 2021 at Barcelona but with a clause that means he can leave for nothing at the end of the season if he is unhappy.
The very public row between the two men has left Barcelona sweating on Messi’s commitment beyond the summer and City have always been the club most likely to sign him should he ever move to England.
But they are not optimistic his social media spat with Abidal over the insinuation that the players got previous coach Ernesto Valverde the sack, changes much.
Messi, 32, is more likely to use his contractual freedom to his benefit, with presidential elections probable in the summer and candidates going out of their way to make changes that will keep him at the club.
Changes that will include another attempt to re-sign the Brazilian, Neymar.
It’s understood president Bartomeu spoke to Messi before his meeting with Abidal and that tensions at the club have eased.
Barcelona’s problems will now return to the pitch. They have two difficult away games – on Thursday in the cup in Bilbao, and in the league against Betis at the weekend.
Catalonianking91
1343
The rumour should be about abidal leaving not messi if one of them leaves it’s abidal
TajemniczyPl
1180
Pep right now
Nadan7
765
Manchester City fans right now [Crylaugh]
Vanaeiklmp
598
let him go. no worries. after rain there will be sunshine. also from the business side barca still get some money from this deal. we will have solutions soon. someday he will retire.
Mesballer
439
Burnley be like: But we Scouted and Got linked to Messi once 😂😂
ceebostz
380
Hum, we need him to play with a different pattern of football, with different coach and not Guadiola to prove that he's that good. Playing for city would be the same as playing at Barcelona with the same system of football.
OmarTargaryen11
320
If this happened man city will need a bigger stadium than Etihad ..so it can fits 90% of Barcelona fans 😂😂
Ullas713
294
First of all This would never happen and secondly I would the one regretting seeing it happen that Messi leaving Barcelona but I just for a thought want to see him play in those light blue colors and after 3 matches back to Barcelona
Md_Majharul
13
let him go. no worries. after rain there will be sunshine. also from the business side barca still get some money from this deal. we will have solutions soon. someday he will retire.
seriously man! if Messi leaves, Barça will be raligated to second deviation next year
chandan3899
12
let him go. no worries. after rain there will be sunshine. also from the business side barca still get some money from this deal. we will have solutions soon. someday he will retire.
after rain there will be a flood also
NYRB
8
let him go. no worries. after rain there will be sunshine. also from the business side barca still get some money from this deal. we will have solutions soon. someday he will retire.
i see where you are coming from. but in order to let messi go you have to have a clear solution that will not downgrade the team dramatically. messi is near irreplaceable and he is the captain so letting him go is definitely not ideal
joycdety
8
Hum, we need him to play with a different pattern of football, with different coach and not Guadiola to prove that he's that good. Playing for city would be the same as playing at Barcelona with the same system of football.
Just like Ronaldo moved to a club that has been winning serie A every year 😐