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.
Víctor Font, Toni Freixa and Joan Laporta are the three candidates for the top post and the former was in favour of the Spain international’s signing. According to Sport, Font felt the conditions were ‘affordable’ for Barca.
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.
