The now-former vice-president of Barcelona has spoken about the possibility of the club signing Neymar, as well as the current internal crisis at Camp Nou.
Former Barcelona vice-president, Emili Rousaud, who was one of the six Barcelona board directors to hand in their resignation last week, has given an exclusive interview to L’Equipe, in which he claimed the return of PSG star, Neymar, was a possibility, particularly due to the player’s likely devaluation and the general financial fallout facing clubs.
“Neymar’s return is possible since the market is going to suffer a devaluation and many clubs are going to have significant financial losses,” said Rousaud.
“Barça want Neymar to return. But it will be necessary to analyse if this operation is possible with the club’s financial situation. Barça’s interest in him is real. And they could seek fractional payments to make the operation cheaper.”
Barcelona are reportedly considering offering a French trio lead by Ousmane Dembélé as part of a deal for PSG star Neymar
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Roussaud also raised the issue of wage cuts, stressing that clubs like Real Madrid and Juventus have been able to make larger reductions than Barcelona.
“The sporting directorate asked the players to make an effort to lower wages. The players’ attitude was exemplary, but Real Madrid, Juventus and Bayern have made more extensive reductions,” he said.
The former Camp Nou VP also discussed the recent board resignations and the current internal crisis at the club, citing the so-called Barçagate issue regarding the hiring of PR firm to oversee several social media accounts that were allegedly used to tarnish the reputation of players and other figures associated with the club.
“Our resignation is what the press has called Barçagate. The club asked a company to deal with the social media accounts and divided the contracts into five parts of €200,000, to avoid controls by the club, which suffered financial damage for paying for these services at higher prices,” said Roussaud.
He added: “Since January, many things have been done in an uncontrolled manner. The club went to Qatar to get Xavi to succeed Valverde, as everyone knows. That caused an internal conflict when Setién arrived to replace Valverde, in addition to Abidal’s statements about the players. Barcelona has had a terrible start to the year.”
