‘It wasn’t easy’ - Deco discusses decision not to sell ‘important’ Barcelona players

Deco has been chatting about the summer transfer window in a new interview and highlighted how it was a tricky time.

The sporting director revealed he did receive offers for some of Barca’s first-team players but had to resist the temptation to sell.

“There were offers for several of our players, but we were clear that we didn’t want to lose important players. If we’re building a team, we can’t undo it. We have to raise the level, not lower it, and selling an important player means lowering it,” he told Barca One.

“We couldn’t fall into the temptation of selling, but it wasn’t easy. Not selling is very complicated because you can’t buy. But I was very clear that the important thing was not to sell the important players and to know what we had at home. The bet must always be on the club.”

Barcelona’s main summer signing was Dani Olmo, and Deco explained what he brings to the team.

”I think that the signing of Dani Olmo gives us a lot of balance in the centre of the field, it gives us a profile quite different from those we already had in this area; so with this we also gained in offensive quality because there were players, there were offers, there were offers for several of our players, but we knew that we did not want to lose any important player, and this has been the idea.”

Deco also said that the presence of so many talented youngsters at the club meant there wasn’t the same need to go to market.

“The idea was that if these youngsters worked, we wouldn’t have to go to the market so much,” he added.

“The idea was to find this balance and find out what we were missing. Within what we had planned, I think we found the balance.”

Olmo has settled in well to life at Barcelona, scoring twice in two games before the international break after returning to Catalunya.