Barcelona’s sporting director Albert Soler has claimed that the club had an agreement to sign Paul Pogba, but the price for the midfielder got too high for them.
Soler says that there was an agreement in place between Barca and Juventus due to the two clubs enjoying a strong relationship, where if Pogba became available that Barcelona would have the first option to purchase his signature.
However, the French midfielder re-joined Manchester United for £89 million last month and Soler believes that increased prices will just make it more difficult to sign the world’s best players.
“Last year we reached an agreement with Juventus: if they wanted to sell Pogba we would have a priority.”
“That was the commitment that we had. Juve did not want to sell the player and we didn’t have the need to sign him.
“Barcelona has always had a great relationship with Juventus. If we would have wanted to do the deal, nobody could advance us.
“We signed six players with €120million. If one club can pay €120m for one player [it] will be very difficult to sign great players.”
Barcelona improved the depth of their squad over this summer by signing Andre Gomes, Denis Suarez, Lucas Digne, Samuel Umtiti, Jasper Cillessen and Paco Alcacer for around £105 million.
It is too early to tell if the Pogba world-record deal is a one-off event, or whether it signifies a change in the market, where English clubs with their massive TV deal can outbid any Spanish club.
For the last decade, Barcelona and Real Madrid have been able to sign whoever they wanted. But the Premier League now has the most money, the best coaches in the game and the best 23-year-old player in the world. Will other superstars turn down Spain for England?
