‘I’m not Messi’s father’
Barcelona coach Setien refuses to get involved in row
QUIQUE SETIEN said he has no regrets about accepting the coaching job at Barcelona after the club descended into crisis on Tuesday.
Club captain Lionel Messi took to to respond to sporting director Eric Abidal, who had earlier said that some of the players were not happy under former boss Ernesto Valverde and were not working very hard.
Messi responded with a message which told Abidal, who he previously played alongside at Nou Camp, to take responsibility for his own decisions and to name the players he was criticising.
The war of words comes less than a month after Setien replaced Valverde and shows some of the problems behind the scenes at the club. However, the former Real Betis coach said he knew what to expect when taking over a team midseason.
“Of course I don’t (regret taking over),” he said “It is true when I was sat at home out of work I didn’t have any problems.
“But when you arrive at a club like this you expect things to happen and for them to be amplified. My life has never been easy. This is what you imagine happens when you arrive at a team of this stature.
“I don’t fall down easily. I am convinced that we can keep moving forward on the pitch and things will go well.”
Setien, 61, said he would not get involved in “Lionel Messi’s life” after he faced a barrage of questions about how Messi’s social media post could affect the team.
“These things don’t affect me,” he added. “I try to make sure they don’t affect my players, either.
“We spoke about it for one minute earlier but that was all. What interests me is football. At any club of this size, there are problems, but they are not things I can control.”
Asked how Messi was, Setien said: “He was in good spirits this morning and smiling. He loves coming in and training and he was the same today as he was yesterday.
“He has the experience and the capacity to decide (what he does). I am not going to get involved in his life – or in anyone else’s. I am not his father.”
Setien, though, is more concerned about losing forward Ousmane Dembele for up to five months. The French forward, who has not played since November, ruptured a tendon in his thigh on Monday in training.
“I am worried about Dembele, not just as a footballer, but as a person because he is an extraordinary kid,” the coach said
“I am gutted that he can’t play football for a number of months. He doesn’t deserve that because he is a great person. I care more about that than anything else.” – AFP/Agencies