Dani Alves is urging Barcelona to make the most of Ousmane Dembele while they can, but he also reminded the France forward he has a duty to "defend the shirt" as long as he remains at Camp Nou.
Dembele was strongly linked with a move away from Barca in January after his agent and the club came to an impasse in contract negotiations.
His current deal expires in June, meaning Dembele is already eligible to discuss free transfers with other clubs, though Barca have made no secret of their desire to keep him.
Nevertheless, Joan Laporta claimed Dembele ultimately rejected a transfer to an English club on deadline day, a decision that left the club president somewhat baffled and assuming he already had an agreement with another team for next season.
Laporta accepted it would be up to head coach Xavi whether Dembele was selected for the rest of the season, though Alves seems to think Barca should make use of his talents while they can.
Speaking on Movistar's #Vamos show, Alves said: "This kind of thing happens in football, but as long as he stays at Barca, he has to defend the shirt.
"If he goes at the end of the season, then so be it, but there are still five months left. You have to take advantage of being here.
"One has to be smarter than the situation. We have to think intelligently and take advantage of the fact that we have the player.
"We need unity in the entire locker room. You have to create a healthy environment of positivity, in which there are no bad vibes. If everyone contributes their own, Barca will come back, that is everyone's goal."
Alves returned to Camp Nou in November after leaving Sao Paulo and was eventually able to be registered at the start of 2022.
Three more new signings arrived in January as Ferran Torres, Adama Traore and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joined the club.
But due to UEFA regulations only permitting three squad alterations ahead of the knockout phases of its club competitions, one of the new arrivals had to be left off their Europa League list.
Alves was the unfortunate one and, while he acknowledged a degree of frustration at the decision, he insisted he was not about to make a big deal of it.
"The coach knows what I think," he said. "I am always focused on trying to contribute as much as I can.
"We are employees. The club decides. I came to help, to add things, to bring a degree of competitiveness and winning spirit.
"If helping means staying out [of the squad], fine. They are phases of life that one has to accept.
"I would've liked to be in the squad, but unfortunately there were four players for three spots. I'm not going to catch bad vibes, I will continue trying to help."
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
De Jong doubted ankle injury would heal ahead of Netherlands return
Barcelona's Frenkie de Jong doubted whether his troublesome ankle injury would ever go away but is now looking forward to resuming his international career after a pause of more than a year.
De Jong spent almost six months on the sidelines before returning for Hansi Flick's LaLiga leaders last month, but he has not represented the Netherlands since September 2023.
A series of ankle issues prevented him from featuring in the majority of the Oranje's Euro 2024 qualifiers and caused him to miss the final tournament in Germany, where they went out in the semi-finals to England.
He will likely get playing time in the Nations League on Saturday when Ronald Koeman's team host Hungary in Amsterdam in their penultimate Group A3 match.
"Did I wonder whether I would ever fully recover? That crossed my mind sometimes, but I always had the confidence that I would eventually be able to play football again," De Jong told reporters on Wednesday.
"There was uncertainty about how long it would take and whether my ankle would be completely the same as it was before."
The 27-year-old said the hardest part was missing this year's European Championships, as a late Ollie Watkins goal dashed the Netherlands' dreams of repeating their Euro 1988 triumph.
"That was tough. I watched all the matches of the Dutch national team but not much of the rest. I did not want to be confronted with it every time," De Jong said.
He was taken off on Sunday when Barcelona lost at Real Sociedad in LaLiga, but fears he would miss out for the Netherlands again were later abated.
"I first got a blow on the muscle next to my shin and then another kick, but it was nothing to do with my knee or ankle," he said.
"I knew it was not a serious injury, but it did bother me a lot."
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
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