Last month, reports coming out of the Catalan press stated Barcelona have reached a verbal agreement with Wolverhampton Wanderers star Rúben Neves’ agent Jorge Mendes for the summer transfer.
It was also stated the midfielder’s arrival at the Camp Nou would depend on the agent placing Barca’s Ansu Fati at another club. There have been reports insisting that Xavi Hernández isn’t keen to have Neves at his disposal.
Friday’s Mundo Deportivo have published a detailed interview with the Spanish giants’ coach and the option to sign the Wolves player was discussed.
Xavi was asked about the claims the Portugal international’s transfer is taken for granted and that he’s not pleased with the potential arrival of the 26-year-old in the next window.
“Yes, but it is that many names come out. Rubén Neves comes out, as Cancelo comes out, as Gündogan, Bernardo Silva or Vitor Roque have come out. There are so many that in the end, answering one by one does not make sense,” he said.
“The planning is done, the names that I would like to have here are [with] the technical secretariat and the sports management, especially Mateu [Alemany], who is the one who will continue with us, Jordi also knows it and the president knows it.”
“The club is making a titanic effort to recover that competitiveness that Barca have had throughout its history. And this year we are in the same conditions as the previous year or it may even be worse. We may not be able to sign what we want, this is the reality.”
“People demand the league, the Champions League, but we are not at the same level as other clubs. We are not at the same economic level as City, Bayern, Madrid, or Juventus. We cannot say: we love him and we incorporate him. We have a ‘fair play’ situation that conditions us absolutely.”
Mundo further quizzed the Barca manager whether Neves can adapt to his style of football since the midfielder isn’t on top of his target list.
Responding to that, Xavi explained: “Let’s see. There are different names: option A, option B, option C. There are three scenarios and that’s where we are.”
Neves has one year left on his deal and the summer window would be Wolves’ last chance to earn big from his sale.
