Deco gave a long interview to Sports World. As usual, some current issues were addressed, in particular regarding the Barcelona transfer market: “The model is going well. We had the Ter Stegen problem which we hadn’t foreseen but which was covered by the arrival of another goalkeeper. At the beginning of the season we knew that sooner or later we would recover Gavi and Frenkie de Jong. We didn’t expect what happened to Araujo and Christensen, but they will recover. Soon we will have Christensen, Araujo, Ferran and Eric available, there will be others four players I think we have a fairly covered team in all positions”, said the sporting director.
Lewandowski is oldis buying a ‘9’ one of your priorities when thinking about the future?
“It’s not a priority because we have to focus on this season. Of course we think about the future, but if we work more on the future we forget about the present. We have to think about what we have to do now and not what we have to do in the future because what happens in this season can influence the future. The work for the future is being done, it is being achieved. What I hope is that Lewandowski continues at the same level he is showing. He is one of the best professionals I have ever seen in my life that he is where he is and that he has marked everyone the goals he has scored, whether he is at this level at 36. I think it is very difficult to find a striker like Robert today. There are one or two of this level level available. But we will not be obsessed with finding a striker now because we will focus first on what Robert can do. I think he is happy to be here, he has a clause that allows him to continue if he achieves a series of goals . But a player like Robert will not be motivated by money but by enthusiasm and I hope he wants to continue next season, it will be a sign that this season has been good.”
When Lewandowski leaves we will need to aspire to a top striker. Is signing Haaland a utopia for Barça given their financial situation?
“First we need to know if Haaland is what we want for the future. We don’t know now. Today we don’t want any “nine”, we have Robert. We are not planning anything; when the time comes to make a decision and I have to make it, we will evaluate the options But I think this is not the time to talk about players.
Could Sporting’s Gyökeres fit into these parameters?
“He is a good player, he has been scoring goals for a long time in Portugal, we know him like the others but he is not one of our priorities today nor are we looking for any ‘nine’ to replace Robert because we want him to continue scoring goals. We won with him and he he’s happy to be here.