Lionel Messi and Eric Abidal had a public fall out after the Barcelona Sporting Director in an interview said that their previous manager Ernesto Valverde was sacked as many players were unhappy with him, Messi then took to Instagram and lashed out at the Sporting director and said that he shouldn’t be talking about this issue without taking the names of the players. This brought the spat out in the open. Ahead of the Copa del Rey 2019-20 quarter-final game against Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona Manager Quique Setien opened up about the controversy. He also spoke about Messi’s mood in the training session. Barcelona Declares 20-Member Squad for Copa del Rey 2019-20 Quarter-Final Against Athletic Bilbao, Injured Ousmane Dembele Continues to Stay Excluded. 

The journalists who had come for the conference wasted no time to quiz about the latest controversy. Setien was very calm and said most of the things do not affect him or the team. “I will try to make [sure] the players are affected the least. We have talked about this. What interests me is football: everything else is situations that I do not and cannot control and I don't wear myself out on them. We will try not to be affected by what happens around,” he said during the conference.

While speaking about Lionel Messi he said that the six-time Ballon d’Or winner is quite well and is enjoying himself in the training session.” I have seen him smiling, he loves to come to train and I have seen him (enjoying himself) just like yesterday or the day before,” Setien said. Ahead of the game, Barcelona declared the 20 member squad for the match which will take place on February 7, 2020.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 05, 2020 10:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).