August 2020 was the end of the cycle of Eric Abidal as technical secretary of the FC BarcelonaNow, seven months later, the former player is discussing his stage in the culé team.
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In an interview for The Telegraphthe French discovered several problems and sent an arrow to MessiIn addition, he spoke about the signing of Griezmann and the DT who proposed the Barça team.
He asked for Valverde’s departure
“In December 2018, after a full analysis of the manager, selection and team, I recommended switching to Ernesto ValverdeI said to the president ‘I think this is the decision we have to make now’. And he said ‘no, it is not easy’. He made the decision to renew the coach’s contract two months later, the opposite of what I had suggested. Of course I accepted the decision and the coach continued to give my full support, but it was a bit strange for me. When we dropped Valverde, Pochettino, Setién, Allegri and Xavi Hernández were on my list, but my first option was Pochettino
He proposes to sign PSG’s current DT
“If I spoke to him? Yes and not just me. I said to the board ‘I have to market the best coach we can. I’m not here for politics because he was with Espanyol before.” I wanted the best. He’s one of the best in our game. Pochettino reached the Champions League final with Tottenham, which has to be respected, he has a good philosophy of playing, training, the players love him and I think he has that. now would be a better coach for this situation, but with a real project ”.
Dardo to Messi
In my opinion the team had to train harder. In my time at Guardiola it was’ do you want the best? Okay, you have to train like the bestYou deserve it all, only if you do the work during the week. I just said this, never that the players wanted to get rid of the coach. Messi spoke to me personally. We had a strong conversation, but I can accept it. No problem because you have to be transparent. I felt very comfortable because he was the only player who spoke to me like that, the only one. I respect that. I also understand that Messi is the captain and that I wanted to defend the team, but I never said Messi would have told me to fire the coach. Never”.
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How was your relationship with the “Flea”?
“I don’t have to fix anything with it Messi, our relationship has not changed from my point of view. I don’t know from his point of view, but for me the situation is over. We exchanged a lot of messages and he knows what I think. I didn’t want to turn a small situation into a global situation and get the whole club in trouble. “
Griezmann prevented Neymar’s return
“Ten days before the end of the transfer period, I went to Paris to talk to Leonardo (PSG sports director). If we had not signed Griezmann earlier, I think we could have 100% re-sign with NeymarWe needed a striker and when Neymar was in Barcelona he was incredible. It’s not about which player is better, it was what I thought was the position we needed at the time. The team needed a real winger. The president decided to sign Griezmann. One of the arguments against Neymar was that he had a lawsuit against the club, so it was not easy. They said he would have to stop the legal proceedings if he wanted to return. That was not my problem because I was not with the club when that dispute took place. In my opinion I was able to sign the player, but that did not happen. “