Barcelona consistently neglected Arthur, his angry response is apt and appropriate

On March 11, 2018, Barcelona reached an agreement with Gremio for the transfer of Arthur Melo. The Spaniards agreed to pay an initial fee of €31 million-plus €9 million in added variables. Arthur signed a six-year contract and was officially announced as a Barça player on July 9, 2018.

The arrival of Arthur at camp Nou received massive media coverage and the Brazilian was regarded as the ideal replacement of legendary Xavi and Anders Iniesta. The experts were not at all wrong to draw a comparison between Arthur and the two great Spanish legends.

Arthur is a visionary player who is always looking for spaces to pass the ball. Gifted with excellent ball-control, he is difficult to dispossess when on the ball; he often utilizes his dribbling skills to great effect, and is known for using a feint known as "la pelopina", which had previously often been performed by former Barcelona midfielders Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, which has led several figures in the sport to draw comparisons between them and Arthur.

 Although he is not known for his goalscoring ability, he still is able to contribute to his team's offensive play by providing assists and "pre-assists".

A versatile midfielder, he is capable of playing as a deep-lying playmaker, central midfielder, box-to-box midfielder, and occasionally also as a holding midfielder. Despite not graduating from La Masia he poses many playing styles and techniques that are ingrained into Barcelona produced footballers at a young age, thus leading to many pundits, experts, and former players opining that he has "Barça DNA" ingrained into him.

His agility, technical ability, dribbling, and movement – both on and off the ball – allow him to create space and control the flow of play in midfield, whilst his exceptional vision, playmaking ability, and precise passing allow him to retain possession, create chances, and make decisive passes for teammates.

Arthur's highest pass accuracy in a single match with Barcelona is 98.6%, which he achieved when he completed 71 passes out of 72 attempted in a Champions League knockout match against Lyon in 2019.

Still, in Camp Now, Arthur felt unwanted and hardly received the respect he deserved. Either he was benched or not even regarded as someone important and the arrival of Frankie de jong made him more unwanted in the side whereas, de Jong has never been able to fulfill the expectations, which he showed in Ajax before arriving at Camp Nou. Still, de Jong, Busquets, and the products of La Masia were emphasized more.

On 29 June 2020, Barcelona announced that they had reached an agreement with Juventus for the transfer of Arthur on a five-year contract for €72 million, plus €10 million in variables; the deal was also coordinated with a swap of Miralem Pjanić. He is set to join the Italian club in September 2020.

A few days back, Arthur Melo has informed Barcelona that he has no intention to play for the club again.

Arthur has not appeared after the Barcelona squad were given the week off by his coach following the end of the LaLiga Santander campaign, despite being summoned to take a COVID-19 test.

The rest of the Blaugrana players returned and passed their coronavirus tests on Monday and were tested negative.

Arthur has also requested that Barcelona terminate what is left of his contract - until the end of the Champions League - and is currently in talks to do so.

The club has made clear that Arthur is still a Barcelona player and given he did not make the appointment on Monday, will take disciplinary action.

Arthur has made it clear to the club that he does not want to wear the Barcelona shirt again, as he feels forced out of the club when he indicated that he wanted to stay.

Arthur feels that he has been mistreated by Barcelona after having previously stated on several occasions that he didn't want to leave the club, only to be forced into a move to Juventus.

Barcelona see this as an act of rebellion and indiscipline on the midfielder's part and have filed a case against the Brazilian. Within the club, they believe that if Arthur had acted in a more responsible way and opened up a dialogue, the situation could have been resolved in a more amicable way.

But after taking the decision to leave without permission, the internal code of the club will be enforced.

The Arthur regime at Barcelona is set to end in an ugly fashion, and recently, Barcelona’s attitude towards the Brazilians have been so insulting, it diminishes the respect for the club.

Neymar had always been treated shabbily by the Catalan media despite giving his 100% for the club. After the miracle turnaround against Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, the Catalan media gave Lionel Messi all he credit whereas it was Neymar’s night. The Brazilian was fed-up with the neglected behaviour and left Camp Nou.

Philippe Coutinho left Anfield at his peak for and joined Barcelona. But at Barca, he was never given his position to play and was misused in the most abysmal fashion, which ultimately destroyed his career. One of the best players in the world a few years back now plays on loan.

The latest addition is Arthur. His angry response was nothing but a reply to the neglected behaviour of Barca, which is understandable.

Arthur did the right thing.

Each and every player gives his best for the team and deserves respect, but Barca is not like that – most importantly their attitude towards the Brazilian players have been negative.

Back in 1996-97, Joan Gaspert, the Barcelona President sold Ronaldo O Fenomeno despite the player’s interest to stay in Camp Nou.

But Ronaldo was sold to Inter.

Ronaldo told DAZN Italy: “I’d signed a contract renewal at the end of the season and I went away with the Brazil national team.

“Five days later, they called me to tell me that I couldn’t continue with the renewal”.

“It was never in my hands. I wanted to stay”.

“If the club didn’t value me as I thought they should, then the decision wasn’t in my hands. I would have liked to have stayed, but it wasn’t up to me.”

Right now, Barcelona is not the right place for the Brazilians.

A Brazilian should think twice before joining Barcelona.

Note: This article has been posted at Cricketsoccer as CSdesk on 29/07/2020 Barcelona consistently neglected Arthur, his angry response is apt and appropriate

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Faisal Caesar