Joan Laporta, one of the candidates in the running for FC Barcelona’s presidency, spoken during an event today about the state of play at the club. Accompanied by Enric Masip (basketball), Gabi Cairo (Roller Hockey) and Javi Rodríguez (Futsal), the lawyer had words to say about fellow candidate, Josep Maria Bartomeu who, he says, doesn’t seem to be open to debate on the issues surrounding the club.
“We will be going all out to defend our proposal. We are keen to fully explain our plans to our competitors. We are devoting our time to make sure that all of the club members understand our proposal; we are not that interested in what the others are doing”, Laporta said.
As for the possibility of signing Arda Turan, Laporta explained, “The board cannot overstep the line [on these issues]. He’s a wonderful player, I love him, but the board cannot display signs of interest for players at this moment, they must wait until the 19th when the new president has been elected. We don’t want players to come here by force – every player wants to join Barça. Making such a serious inversion for a player requires a great deal of study by many people at the club. The board decided on Tuesday that they wouldn’t be getting involved in the matter because they haven’t the authority to do so”.
Laporta also spoke about another Barça target, Paul Pogba: “After the mess to try and sign Pogba, the rumours about Arda Turan started to circulate in an attempt to cover up the ridicule Braida and Soler made of themselves in Milán – going out there declaring that they are going to sign a player and coming back empty-handed. It just makes Barça look stupid. I also didn’t think it was a good idea to sell Deulofeu – what was the reasoning behind doing that? They should have waited until the new president was on board; it just looks like it was done to boost the club’s coffers by six million euros. The board taking such decisions only leaves them with a bad reputation. The way we work, we do not enter into operations that can be sorted out at a later date – we don’t gain anything by rushing things. [Pogba’s agent, Mino] Raiola is the key to this – everyone wants to sign Pogba, not just Joan Laporta. You can’t say you want to sign him and then fail to bring him back. I also like [Monaco midfielder] Bernardo Silva; he’s young and I’ve watched in a number of games, Marco Verrati and Pastore too. But we feel that the best incorporation would be Pogba. If we win on the 19th, we will go to Turin and talk to his club and to Raiola”.