A little over two years ago, Barcelona presented what was supposed to be the sports leadership that guided the Blaugrana team. In the absence of President Bartomeu, who was not present at the act (quite a declaration of intent) so that they would not ask him about Griezmann's no to the offer from Barcelona broadcast on television the day before, Jordi Mestre and Pep Segura accompanied Éric Abidal, who came to the entity accompanied by Ramon Planes. Two years later, half of that photo is no longer at the club and the other half can no longer get close to the locker room. There is nothing like looking at an old photo album, in this case not so old, to see how the club's sports policy falters.
Jordi Mestre, at that time vice president of sports, justified the election of Abidal as the new technical secretary to replace Robert Fernández with the following words: “A technical secretary has three very clear functions and I think Éric fulfills them all. There is the day-to-day relationship with the staff and the staff, the knowledge of the international football market and the fact that the French market is potentially the most important and its ancestry there is a very favorable point ”.
Two years later, the picture is different. Pep Segura was dismissed, Mestre resigned and regarding Abidal none of the three predictions of those who endorsed him have been fulfilled. He can't set foot in the locker room after Messi threw cavalry at him publicly for hinting in a Sport interview that the players called for Valverde's removal and his contribution to the French market has been limited to hiring Todibo. , who at six months was transferred to Schalke, who is not going to keep it and who is looking for a team.
The proof of Abidal's distancing from the locker room that in theory he came to grease the board's relations with the stars, is that during the negotiation with the players so that the salary would be lowered during the confinement, the Frenchman did not appear. It was the president and CEO Òscar Grau who led the singing voice together with Albert Soler.
Another of the tasks entrusted to Abidal was to liaise with Griezmann, a player who has fallen into an ostracism unthinkable for a star of 135 million.