Deco opens up after transfer market: "It's hard not to be tempted to sell"

Deco has opened up. The FC Barcelona sporting director gave an interview to Barça One, where he offered his point of view regarding the transfer market. On September 10, a small extract was broadcast, where the Portuguese revealed his opinion of Hansi Flick and explained in detail what his objectives were in this window, where the signings of Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor were achieved.

Let us remember that a few weeks ago, the Spanish press spoke of the possible departure of the Portuguese from the culé team. However, these were only rumors, because Deco shows himself committed to staying and giving his all to take the Blaugrana team to the next level. In addition, president Joan Laporta has taken it upon himself to show his gratitude both publicly and privately. For this reason, he has decided to speak for the first time after the market and be honest about the challenges he faced.

Deco considered selling a player

On this occasion, the manager had to continue working to put together a good squad in a club that still cannot operate under the 1:1 rule and has only been able to register players like Dani Olmo and Iñigo Martínez thanks to the long-term injuries of Andreas Christensen and Ronald Araújo. Despite the challenges, Deco assured that selling a player would have gone against the project they are developing for the future of the club.

“There were offers for several of our players but we did not want to lose any important player. We are building a team and not breaking it up. Falling into the temptation of selling an important player was not easy. We could play with this ‘fair-play’ thing. Without selling you cannot buy but I was clear that the most important thing was not to sell any important player,” explained the sporting director. Among the favorites to leave we can mention players like Frenkie de Jong and Ronald Araújo.

Both players stayed at Barça and the Portuguese was satisfied with the squad they have for this season, especially with the number of young players who have stepped up: “If they work, we don’t have to go to the market so much. Within what we had planned, we have found a balance. With Olmo we gained offensive quality and he is a midfielder profile that we didn’t have. He balances us out,” he said.

The Portuguese applauds Hansi Flick and the young talents at La Masia

Another thing that Deco did was applaud the work that those in charge at La Masia have been doing. “There is a lot of work behind the scenes. Important players always come out of Barça. It is essential for a club to have quality at home,” said the sporting director. This season, four have already made their debut: Marc Bernal, Gerard Martín, Pau Víctor and Gerard Martín, so we could see many more training and playing matches with the first team.

Finally, he gave his opinion on the work his coach, Hansi Flick, has been doing up to now: “He is a calm man. A football person who likes to work, has very clear ideas, is demanding and is very clear about what a football player and the people who work with them have to do. I would define him as a worker,” he concluded. Without a doubt, Deco’s work is admirable, because despite the challenges he has faced, he has managed to get ahead. It remains to be seen what he surprises us with in the upcoming markets.

The arrival of Dani Olmo and the squad for the 24/25 season

The sporting director was pleased with the arrival of Dani Olmo, explaining that he is a player that they did not have available in their squad: "Dani is the midfield player that we did not have. There was a lot of quality, but Dani was a player that we were missing. He plays very well between the lines, he scores goals, he links up very well with forwards. Fermín can do that to you a bit, but they are different. Fermín is more explosive. It is a combination of players. Dani gives us this hunger to win. Barça has always been a mix of homegrown players and hungry footballers," said the Portuguese.

He does not feel that they are short of a squad either, on the contrary, they have many quality players, which does not mean that they have not contacted other players. Although he did not want to give the name of Nico Williams, he indirectly mentioned him. "Today we have Raphinha, Ferran, the return of Ansu (he was very good in pre-season), Lamine, players like Fermín or Olmo who can play there. To bring someone in, they had to be of a very high level. With the signing of Dani, it gave you more options. It's not that we haven't spoken to players, but we had other priorities," explained Deco.

Finally, he made it clear that all his work was in line with that of Flick and the needs they had at the time: "We talk to the coach, we analyse positions. When we lost Bernal, we had Christensen and Araujo out. Centre-backs and pivots. But at the same time we were close to the recovery of Gavi and Frenkie. But the tempos were not the same. The coach was the first to say that if we couldn't bring in a level, we could continue with what we have. We reflect, we don't make hasty decisions."