Barcelona President Joan Laporta explains why they failed to sign Arda Guler

Barcelona President Joan Laporta has told the Catalan press that the cost of Real Madrid midfielder Arda Guler surpassed the limits they were willing to pay.

Guler was a target for Barcelona before he signed for Los Blancos, with Sporting Director Deco travelling to Istanbul to meet with Guler and his agents. He claims they had agreed to pay Guler’s €17.5m release clause, and had a deal with the player before the costs started to rise.

“We could have competed,” Laporta told Sport.

“Neither with Arda nor with other players who want to come to Barca. We self-impose criteria that we are not going to transgress,” he said, presumably referring to fees and salaries.

“We have to apply common sense and we thought that this operation, due to the magnitudes that it had reached, we should set aside.”

Laporta went on to say that he thought it would have been a “mistake” had they paid over the odds for Guler.

“Later other clubs came in for him. Madrid came in and considered that they had to pay the amounts they have paid.”

Not including his signing bonus or salary, the cost of Guler’s transfer will be a minimum of €35m with commissions, and could reach up to €45m. Fenerbahce also have a 20% sell-on clause.

While Guler perhaps thought that Real Madrid might have been offering a better project anyway, Laporta’s explanation might be impopular but given Barcelona’s current situation, it would be bizarre to see him chastised them for financial restraint. Equally, Barcelona have been far more frivolous with the likes of deals for Ferran Torres or Raphinha.