Barça did not pardon Arthur Melo, 23 years old. The player, transferred to Juventus in an operation that included the signing of Pjanic, returned to Barcelona last Friday after a telephone conversation with Eric Abidal, Barça's sports director. This Monday, the club warned him that they did not have him. "Until his disciplinary file is resolved he cannot be part of any activity of the first team, neither travel nor training," explain sources from the Barça entity.
This Wednesday, the lawyers of Arthur and those of Barça will meet to try to settle the situation. Barça travels to Lisbon on Thursday. On Friday night, they face Bayern in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. And nothing suggests that Arthur is joining the Barça expedition. Quique Setién, who recovers the sanctioned Busquets and Arturo Vidal, only has four first-team midfielders (the Chilean and the Catalan, plus De Jong and Rakitic), who are joined by the versatile Sergi Roberto and the youth squad Riqui Puig .
“We asked Arthur to return from Brazil as a gesture of goodwill. And he fulfilled ”, they count in Barcelona. On Friday afternoon, after passing the PCR tests in a private clinic, he appeared at the Ciudad Deportiva. He spoke with Eric Abidal. The player understood that his situation could be dislodged and on Saturday he tried to go to support his teammates at the Camp Nou against Naples. But, as he was not within those accredited by UEFA, he could not go to the stadium. "Arthur did not come when he had to, he did not pass the PCR with the UEFA club and he is out of the list of people who could be in the stadium. That is why it is not here. We'll see what happens, but what counts is the game against Napoli and then we'll talk about it, ”explained Guillermo Amor, the club's head of institutional relations.
On Monday he performed again at the Ciudad Deportiva. His colleagues, for their part, had the day off. Then, they warned him that his situation was already in the hands of the lawyers. The Brazilian was surprised who feels the victim of a smear campaign by the club to justify his transfer to Juve. Since his departure was made official, he only participated in five minutes against Celta. "I don't paint anything," Arthur complained. "Something always hurts him," Setién answered.
Once LaLiga was over, Arthur went on vacation to Ibiza and then left for his country. From there, he told Eric Abidal that he did not intend to return to training. A week later he returned. Nothing changed. Arthur is still out of the first team. Barcelona, against Naples, only had 13 players from the first team. For the duel against Bayern he recovers Arturo Vidal and Busquets. And he is waiting for Dembélé who this Tuesday trained with the group. Messi, who ended up with a blow to his left ankle, worked with a bandage. This Wednesday Barcelona will make its last preparation before traveling to Lisbon at the Ciudad Deportiva.