Abidal admits his mistake in the Messi crisis
The sporting director says he's learned his lesson during Braithwaite's presentation
FC Barcelona sporting director Eric Abidal spoke about the Lionel Messi crisis he caused. The Frenchman broke his silence at Martin Braithwaite's presentation when he was asked about it by media. "I've learned many things in few days and internal things should be dealt with internally and not in the media," he said.
On the squad departures - Alena, Perez, Todibo, Wague - Abidal defended himself. "You have to take decisions. The number of players could be important or not and you can talk about a small squad but we've had bad luck with injuries. If Dembele didn't get injured we wouldn't be here."
Abidal said that "with players like Alena they are situations we can't control. He had the option to go and you can't fight it. We speak with the coach, we leave clear messages and we take decisions. We have a team that can compete in La Liga and the Champions League, with B team players, Quique Setien counts on them. I can't talk about the number of players because what's important is the quality."
On Braithwaite, Abidal said: "He's a different type of player to those we have in attack. He has character and is always positive. He's a winner, a fighter, fast, he'll bring us a lot of strength. We've seen he's got big potential. We believe in his talent a lot. He'll bring us a lot, he's a decisive player."
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