Barcelona’s 4-1 loss against Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 tie at the Camp Nou was their second defeat in less than a week.
The first was a 2-1 defeat to Sevilla in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final last midweek.
These two defeats have emphasised the La Liga side made a mistake by not signing Manchester City’s Eric García in the winter market.
The centre-back’s contract expires at the end of the season and has already decided against signing an extension.
Having failed to land the 20-year-old last summer, there was hope Ronald Koeman’s side will try to sign the defender in the last window. That didn’t happen as there wasn’t a unanimous agreement among Barca’s presidential candidates for the centre-back’s arrival.
Freixa then countered Font by asking if he was ready to sanction a deal worth €10m for signing García, who left the club for City in 2017.
The Citizens paid €1.7m as ‘training rights’ when they took him, and Freixa was only in favour of taking Pep Guardiola’s man for the same figure.
“I would offer Manchester City €1.7m, which is what they paid back in the day for training rights. This or nothing, since he will be free on July 1st,” he said.
Freixa then made a revelation as to why Barca ‘did not sign’ García in the mid-season window.
“I found a candidate who threatened with lawsuits and scared the manager (Laporta), and another who wanted to pay money when he arrived free. Your [Font’s] friend, Ferran Soriano, would [have been] happy if we paid City [for his signing],” Freixa stressed.
Clearly Freixa feels García downgraded himself when he decided to leave Barca for City, which is why he wasn’t in favour of paying more than €1.7m to Guardiola’s side.
After failing to get a move to Barcelona in the last two windows, the player can return to the Camp Nou as a free agent in the summer.
