Abidal: "Griezmann can make the difference in the big matches"

French newspaper 'Le Parisien' managed to get an interview with Eric Abidal and ask him about the arrival of Antoine Griezmann at Barça and the subsequent problems the club is having with Atletico Madrid.

"The president Bartomeu got in touch with Atletico Madrid to discuss the terms of a transfer for Griezmann and to inform them, if negotiations weren't possible, that Barça would pay his €120m buyout clause. It was €200m in March and €120m in July," explained Abidal.

Since then Atletico have launched a very public attack on Barça for supposedly agreeing a deal with the player before his buyout clause had dropped to €120m. "Atletico are defending their interests and we are defending Barça's. We never had a prior agreement with the player. We got in contact with his lawyer after Griezmann announced he wanted to leave the club."

"We can always talk about interest. We can like a player because our sporting department says they'd fit the profile of what we are looking for. But this interest only became concrete when the player expressed his wish to join Barça."

Abidal is a huge fan of Griezmann. "To start, his talent. We all know this. His experience too because he's won a lot of titles. He was a very important player for Atletico Madrid. He can make a difference in the big matches and is capable of playing in various positions. He's still a great goalscorer and Barça need players like him."

Despite Griezmann turning down Barça a year ago, Abidal says there are no hard feelings because that decision was made due to family reasons rather than for sporting ones.

A lot was made of Lionel Messi's failure to comment on Griezmann's potential arrival at Barça. "That isn't Messi's role. If he gives his opinion on someone who players for another team, it's disrespectful to his current teammates. I believe that's why Leo didn't want to talk about Antoine."

The big question now is how does Valverde fit all of his attacking stars into the team. "We needed six attacking players and, with Griezmann, we have those six. After that, it's the coach who makes the decisions."

And lastly, Abidal spoke about the failed move for Adrien Rabiot. "He was on our list and decided to sign for Juventus. We don't know why but it could be for sporting or financial reasons, I don't know."