Barcelona sporting director Eric Abidal will be remembered as the club’s legend but his recent fallout with Lionel Messi has been seen in bad eyes.
Eric Abidal commenting about Barcelona players having a lack of commitment under Ernesto Valverde caused a stir inside the dressing room. Lionel Messi was quick to take to Instagram and slam the club’s sporting director for what he said, asking him to name the players he is talking about rather than spoiling the image of the entire squad.
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Josep Maria Bartomeu had to intervene and silence the situation at least until the end of the season. It was though that Abidal would be fired from his role, but the Barca president made sure that nothing untoward happened until the end of the season. That said, it was the gateway to several other controversies at the club which need solving at the earlier.
Abidal is surely aware of the fact that he may not be the sporting director at Camp Nou next year following what happened most recently. Moreover, the Frenchman’s business sense has been questioned after the Blaugrana have failed in landing crucial players over the last few transfer windows and spent heavily on players who have not delivered as well.
Don Balon reported that Abidal already has one foot out of Barcelona and Lionel Messi has demanded that he gets replaced with Monchi. The 51 year old is one of the world’s best sporting directors and has had a memorable spell with La Liga giants Sevilla. Monchi was on Barca’s radar since a few years but he never showed interest in signing up with the club.
Given that Sevilla are struggling to land a Champions League spot for the next season, there is talk that Monchi would consider offers to leave. Lionel Messi personally asking Barca to sign him could be a major factor that influences the sporting director’s decision and it will surely have an instantly positive impact on the Catalans’ transfer activities.
Monchi has done a really good job at Sevilla, having discovered talents such as Sergio Ramos, Jose Antonio Reyes and Alberto Moreno amongst others while he also orchestrated the signings of Dani Alves and Ivan Rakitic who were later sold for a profitable margin. His work at Roma wasn’t as good, but he has proven himself in Andalusia.
Do you think Monchi would be able to curb Barca’s wasted expenditure with his experience?