Laporta: Olmo Perfectly Replaces Gündogan; Deco Facilitates Flick’s Arrival

On the evening of September 3rd, Barcelona President Laporta attended a press conference.

In what has been a relatively challenging summer for Barcelona, they only managed to sign two new players, and even failed to register Olmo before Christensen’s injury, eventually having to use an emergency rule to complete the registration. However, Laporta gave a wholly positive evaluation of their operations.

Laporta said, “I want to say that we are very satisfied with our current coach. La Masia has a significant impact on the first team; it is the cornerstone of our sporting project. We are very pleased with Deco’s work. Thanks to him, we have Flick. He did an excellent job in renewing the contracts of young players. Deco and his team, including Bojan and Enrique, did outstanding work in registering players. I want to commend them for their extraordinary efforts. He was instrumental in signing Dani Olmo and Pau Victor.”

After lavishly praising Sporting Director Deco, Laporta announced that the club will return within its salary cap before the next transfer window and explained that Olmo was the top target for the club this summer.

Laporta said, “We are very satisfied with our current squad. Olmo was our top target in terms of signings, and we have achieved that. We are very happy with Olmo. The core of our project is La Masia, and Flick demonstrated this by promoting youth players to the first team. We are excited, but we do not want excessive enthusiasm.”

Of course, for much of the summer, there were reports that Athletic Bilbao winger Nico Williams was their top target. However, the Basque winger chose to stay at Bilbao, but Laporta was unwilling to elaborate: “Please allow me not to talk about players who are not ours. I will not comment on players who are not part of our squad.”

Regarding Félix and Cancelo, Laporta said, “Based on Deco and Flick’s decisions on the team setup, they believed it was not necessary to make their loans permanent. They were on loan and have now taken different paths. Félix is at Chelsea, and I believe Cancelo is now in the Saudi league.”

Laporta was asked why no more new signings were made, but he shifted focus to the injured players returning soon. He said, “We have made more additions, such as Casado and Bernal, who have already established themselves in the first team. Gerard Martín has also been promoted, and Sergi Domínguez has made his debut.”

“After the international break, we hope that Frenkie de Jong can recover, followed by Gavi. Today, unfortunately, Ferran got injured while playing for the national team. He played many games this summer, and now he is injured, which is unfortunate. Christensen and Ronald Araújo will also recover. They will be back throughout the season. After the international break, De Jong is expected to return. Balde is already fit and in good shape. Deco will soon conduct an interview on Barça One, explaining the team setup.”

Regarding letting Gündogan and Roko go, Laporta said, “Gündogan is an excellent player. Our year together was wonderful. After meeting with Flick and assessing the team situation, he decided to leave. This was purely a sporting decision. With Olmo’s arrival, Gündogan’s position has been filled. This decision was made jointly by the player and the club. I heard it was an economic decision, but it wasn’t. For Roko, we received offers from four clubs, including Betis. Now he will have the opportunity to show that he is an excellent player. We hope he demonstrates his ability.”