‘We should have been informed before’ – Spain manager chastises Barcelona on Lamine Yamal withdrawal | OneFootball

Spain manager Luis de la Fuente has criticised Barcelona’s handling of Lamine Yamal’s treatment, assuring that he and the national team were not informed that he was undergoing a procedure on Monday morning. After being called up on Friday, Lamine Yamal played 91 minutes against Celta Vigo, but then underwent a radiofrequency treatment to deal with his sports hernia.

That only emerged on Tuesday morning, and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) put out a statement expressing their ‘surprise and dismay’ after having to release Lamine Yamal from international duty. De la Fuente himself then commented that ‘he had never experienced anything like it’. In a later interview with Cadena Cope, he reaffirmed that La Roja were not aware of his treatment.

“Surely we should have been informed that he was going to receive that treatment beforehand, not afterward.”

‘We need improved dialogue’ – De la Fuente

De la Fuente gave three interviews on the matter later the subject, explaining that it was not up to him to resolve the matter.

“I believe that Barca wants to defend its player, as it should be, and so do we,” he noted to Cadena SER. “I think the secret to having even better relations between both parties lies in dialogue, in information, and in facilitating that information. That’s the key; I believe it’s important to have a good relationship between the club and the national team, but so far we haven’t had any problems.

“This is not something that is resolved between coaches, but at a higher institutional level. [Perhaps somewhere there is a lack of] a sense of national identity, a sense of belonging to the national team. Perhaps someone is lacking that feeling,” he told Cope.

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De la Fuente: ‘Flick lacked a little empathy’

De la Fuente was involved in an exchange of words with Barcelona manager Hansi Flick, who accused Spain of not looking after Lamine Yamal. The Spain coach explained that Flick was lacking in empathy for his situation, but felt that relations were still good with Blaugrana.

“No one from Barça has called me to say anything bad. Quite the opposite. When I’ve been at Camp Nou, they’ve treated me wonderfully, as I’ve already mentioned on numerous occasions,” he explained on Cadena SER.

“I don’t need to call Hansi Flick for anything. If I need to speak to him, I’ll do so when appropriate. I missed a bit of empathy, because he’s been a national team coach. But if I had to call a coach, a colleague, I would do it privately. I wouldn’t do it publicly because he’s probably made a mistake, or I might be wrong. I would do it privately. And that’s the only thing I missed.”

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Difference between Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams cases

It has been noted that Athletic Club winger Nico Williams, suffering from the same injury, played on Sunday but was not called up. De la Fuente reasoned that when he named his squad, Williams had not returned to action, and claimed Ernesto Valverde took a risk in using him against Real Oviedo.

Meanwhile there was plenty of tension during El Clasico between Spain teammates Lamine Yamal and Dani Carvajal two weeks ago, but the Spain manager calmed any fears of a rift. He noted that he had mentioned it to both players, but did not expect any issues between them going forward.