Former Arsenal winger Aleksandr Hleb has provided the reason behind the exits of both Ronaldinho and Deco at Barcelona in 2008.
The two players were key for Barcelona in the leading years before current Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was promoted to be the Barcelona manager from the Barcelona B team.
One of his major acts as a Barcelona manager was to offload both Ronaldinho and Deco shortly after his appointment.
BATE Borisov player and former Arsenal star Hleb was at Barcelona then and he has lifted the lid on what led to the controversial exits of the two players.
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According to him, Ronaldinho and Deco came into training drunk and they were both sold to prevent them from influencing a young Lionel Messi.
Ronaldinho was offloaded to Italian Serie A giants AC Milan shortly after that incident, while Deco joined Chelsea from the Catalan giants.
Chelsea were said to have paid £8m to secure the signing of Deco.
Hleb revealed that the decision was made by Pep Guardiola to protect an 18-year-old Messi.
Guardiola went on to win the Champions League with Barcelona in his first season at the club while Messi is widely regarded as the greatest player ever 14 years after that drunk incident involving Deco and Ronaldinho.
