Barcelona great Rivaldo believes his old club have made a mistake selling Arthur.

Arthur has been sold to Juventus as part of a deal which will see Miralem Pjanic arrive in the opposite direction.

Rivaldo told AS: "For me, Arthur had to stay at Barça. I have already said that he is a great player. And the press said that he played well, that he was a Xavi and that he played similar to him. They all spoke well of Arthur.

"He played calm, easy, with the ball at his feet. He gave tranquility, he passed the ball well. But I don't know what happened because Arthur had many years ahead of him to play for Barça. In my opinion, he should have stayed a long time at Barça."

On the Brazilian going AWOL, Rivaldo also remarked: "For me, Arthur had to be with all the players because he is not yet a Juventus player. He had to be with the team.

"I don't know what exactly happened with Arthur because I don't think a player will go to Brazil for nothing, because he doesn't want to play. He is a calm, good person.

"I don't know what happened between Barça and Arthur, it's something we don't know yet. It is a situation that should have been discussed so that it did not happen, because it is bad for the player and bad for Barça."