Eric Abidal
Eric Abidal was under pressure yesterday after six-times Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi criticized him for comments he made in an interview. The former Barcelona man was made the club’s sporting director after his retirement but this looks like is not the desire of the club’s highest goal scorer Lionel messi.
The board of directors of the club sat yesterday to discuss his continuation or sack after comments made by the captain Lionel Messi. The meeting which lasted for two hours ended in favor of the former Barcelona defender. Barcelona board came to the conclusion that the French man will keep his job despite the criticism made by Lionel Messi.
The 40-year-old would remain in Nou Camp and maintain his role as the sporting director of the club. Barcelona had a difficult winter transfer window. They realized they needed a striker but, for different reasons, they couldn’t get one.
The issue started after the sack of former Barcelona coach Valverde, Messi and Marc-Andre ter Stegen were never in support of the sack. They were backing the coach despite the fact that they were playing below expectations. The sack of Valverde did not go in Messi’s favor and so Eric Abidal was one of the persons that headed the meeting of the sack of the former coach.
After Eric Abidal said something was wrong and he knows there is something going wrong in the dressing room in an interview, Messi responded very quickly to Abidal’s interview. He responded because he felt the finger of blame was being pointed at him.
Messi is gradually getting fed up with the club by the day, is obvious things are going against him him presently in the club. He wanted Neymar to return and Valverde to stay, and those things did not happen.
The chairman of the club has spoken to both Eric Abidal and Messi to calm things down but has that settled it? A question which can only be answered on the pitch through bounce back from their poor performance. Lionel Messi is the engine room for the team if they don’t settle it things will really not go well.