What if Eric Abidal is right?
What if the Barcelona players haven't been carrying their load and they are the reason why the Catalans no longer boss Spanish and European football?
Because it's one thing to be inopportune, ungrateful, clumsy, vengeful and other adjectives you could throw at his interview with Sport, but it's quite a different situation if his words were founded on fact.
We can't be surprised, though, that Lionel Messi is offended.
He doesn't like to be singled out, nor does anyone, and bravo to him for standing up for his teammates, for his goals and his decisive actions.
He's been the star, the team and the club all in one man.
But maybe the problems and the drama are an accumulation of things from recent years, and it's just been accentuated by Messi.
It's hard to know if Abidal is going to be dismissed or if he'll leave the job.
After so many years of hearing "you have to keep Messi happy," he may now be tired of smiling.
Barcelona are without charisma, without credibility and without any personality.
Their roadmap now is purely to poll Messi and if he frowns then stop doing what it is they were doing.
After Rome, Messi liked Ernesto Valverde, so Valverde stayed. The same happened after Anfield.
The same thing happened with Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid, and it will with Kylian Mbappe at Paris Saint-Germain if he's there for long enough.
Josep Maria Bartomeu needs to do three things:
1. Call elections
2. Stop his fight that's going nowhere.
3. Keep and don't waste his most precious asset.
That asset is Messi.
He's the best player of all time, and LaLiga Santander's biggest jewel.
There's nobody like him, and when he retires they'll feel his absence.
At least, today, Barcelona can still enjoy the sunrise, which is no small thing.
woeabdpryz
483
it's not about right or wrong...question is why would abidal blame the players and he even didn't mention names...which means he is blaming everyone or making sterile environment within the group...that's real bad..messi as a captain did right to question abidal 's statement...board and abidal made wrong decisions after decisions and never owned upto those decisions...but how on earth do they have the guts to question the players..
Dooabcemrs
461
Even if abidal is right also, he should discuss things in ptivate. They have already changed the coach so there is no point in bringing the fuss in the dressing room regarding the past. Messi has toh defend his player here, ge has no other option otherwise the environment in the dressing room will even be more worst.
Benosky1
436
He was right. No captain is like puyol, Xavi and iniesta. expect d captain to-do his work on the pitch after d Coach.. Just like Ramos.. even when his forwards can't get the work done, he steps forward to deliver.. Ucl and other crucial games is an instance.. Since 2016 Xavi left Barca, handed arm band to Messi,UCL has been a joke.. and they keep blaiming other players, neglecting d captain who controls his players on the pitch.. Maradona: Messi is not a team leader.. Maradona was right.. and other Barca fans will say NO to that statement.. but its d bitter truth.
real_ultras
367
When Pique criticized people in Barca, Bartameu didn't take the route of Insta or Twitter to make it a public spat. He met Pique and resolved differences. Messi is an exceptional and extraordinary player, but he is not same as a captain. There is a difference in these two. People should stop criticizing Abidal because of Messi and read his interview. He gave his views which is only fair and to a point correct as well.
Profnick
173
I'm not a Messi hater but listen guys, having Messi in Barca needs an intelligent manager who is there to get the best out of him and also get the players who can, even in his absence continue the momentum, take for example Man City... they won the EPL with the world's best Midfielder KDB injured for a large part of the season, other players stepped in and closed the gap. Liverpool lost their most prolific midfielder in Firmino but they went on to win the UCL, Mane is out injured but they keep winning, Salah was out injured they kept winning, no matter who gets injured they keep bringing the same results. it's a blessing and a curse to have Messi or Ronaldo in your team for it can lead to complacency on the part of other players, it limits them to needing moments of magic from their stars and wanting to feed the stars to grind results. Abidal is not wrong, as harsh as he came through but Barca players need to up their game to at least 60% of Messis level otherwise they dont deserve that Jersey