In a candid conversation with Barca One, he stated: "I prefer to lead by focusing on the future rather than dwelling on the past. When we first took over, the situation was dire. We were on the brink of bankruptcy, but we have since made significant improvements. Our revenue has gone up, expenses have been cut down, and we managed to decrease the wage bill by 170 million euros. It takes great negotiation skills to achieve such reductions. Additionally, we have successfully sold players for a total of 80 million euros for strategic sporting purposes."
Barcelona president Joan Laporta has reaffirmed claims of rejecting a massive offer for Lamine Yamal over the summer.AdvertisementAdvertisement"We're a buying club with common sense and responsibility. What we have that no one else has is La Masia, which produces great talent that ends up playing in the first team. I already said that La Masia would be the nuclear centre of our project and that is being achieved. We are keeping an eye on the market, but first we look at home."
"There are those who think that they have been made to balance the result, but that is not the case. The sale of players that we have made has been for sporting reasons. (Ousmane) Dembélé, (Marc) Guiu... As at Barça you are nowhere. We know how to sell and whoever comes to buy players will have to make a statement. We want those who want to play here to stay. They came to buy Lamine from me for €250 million and I said no... Forbes values us much more now than last year.
"We didn't want to because we thought we had to keep the team. I don't think we were wrong. (Hansi) Flick is getting a lot out of many of these players. (Ilkay) Gündogan has left, but (Dani) Olmo has come. There are players who perform better, like Raphinha or (Robert) Lewandowski. We are happy. But those who want to stay will stay at Barça."