Messi: "I responded to Abidal because I felt I was being attacked"

Messi: "I responded to Abidal because I felt I was being attacked"

 El momento en el que Éric Abidal habló sobre la actitud de algunos jugadores con Valverde / | Rubén Moreno

The Argentine forward felt the players were being blamed for Valverde's sacking

FC Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has confirmed that he felt "attacked" when Eric Abidal gave an interview to SPORT. In that conversation, Abidal expressed doubts over certain players giving their all under Ernesto Valverde. However, Messi responded immediately on social media and has now gone into greater detail behind why he responded.

"I don't know what went through his head to say that but I responded because I felt I was being attacked. I felt he was attacking the players. And there are already too many things said about this dressing room, how we control everything, that we decide which coaches come and go, that we bring in certain players - and most of this is aimed at me. Like I have the power and make decisions," a frustrated Messi reveals.

"So it bothers me that someone at the club, a director of football... puts the players in the middle of the firing line when a coach has been sacked. It was crazy. The director of football is the one who makes the decisions and should just do his job. That's why I came out to clear things. I couldn't allow a director of football to attack me in this way."

HURT

The forward felt Abidal's words hurt him personally and more so as he's the captain of the team. "(I responded) because he first attacked the dressing room. That's why I said if he's going to attacking the dressing room that he should name names and say who this person was before going public. And then on a personal level, for what I said before, because they've always posted a lot of stories about how I make decisions and I'm in control here, things which aren't true. So (I responded) for both of those reasons," revealed Messi.

Once again, Messi made it clear that he doesn't have any power at the club when it comes to making decisions. "This also happened to me with Argentina, where they said that I choose the players, that I choose the coaches, that I only play with my friends. I don't know. After spending so much time in the same place, I know how these things are run, here as well as with the national team, maybe that's why (they say these things). But I think it's been shown several times that I have my own opinion, the club theirs, and a lot of times we aren't on the same page and they don't do what I would have."

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