Saturday 8 August 2009

Vice president Yuste: "I felt sad for Villa"

Barcelona sports vice president Rafael Yuste gave an interview to Catalan sports paper Sport.





Which transfer operation was your debut?
The sale of Ronaldinho. That's where I learnt that a football player always ends up playing where he wants to play. For us, the best option was Manchester City, but he wanted to go to Milan and he ended up in Milan.

What do you think of this world of football?
Well... Complicated. It's about persons, so there's a human factor you should be able to manage. And then you have the clubs, coaches, intermediaries, press... It's very complicated.

You had signed Villa?
The boy wanted to come. We went to Madrid to close the operation with Valencia but at the last minute they asked an exaggerated sum of money that was above our budget. I felt sad for Villa that it didn't go through.

So then you went after Ibrahimovic...
He was the dream of Guardiola. And ours, but it always seemed something far, impossible, until we decided to actually try it.

That suddenly crossed your mind...
I've always been very persistent and I think nothing is impossible. I thought there was a possibility if we could convince Eto'o. We had one advantage: we knew that the dream of Ibra was to play at Barça.

And so you went to Milan...
That's where we already had a series of circumstances that helped us. Moratti was in Milan, we could land at the airport that same afternoon when we returned from Ukraine and the president negotiated very well. You can see the result - Ibra seemed impossible but we signed him.

Let's see if the same happens with Ribéry...
No, Bayern doesn't want to sell him. The day they put him on the market, we'll be the first to be informed.

What about Mascherano, Chygrynskiy, Cesc...?
We know that the priorities of Pep are a centre-back and a midfielder. We'll make a decision when the moment is there. To uptouch a Picasso is very difficult.


Read more:
Laporta on Cesc, Messi and Ibrahimovic
Assistant coach wants one or two more transfers

8 comments:

yuti said...

Villa must be so disappointed. He could end his career with no major trophies.

Unknown said...

For a moment early in the transfer season, I had doubts about our board but now everything seems to fall into place. I'm pretty sure Pep will get all the player that he wants this transfer season.

If not, we are sure to get some more quality players next season as some of these players future depends on their clubs' fortune and expiring contract eg. Valencia's Villa, Bayern's Ribery, Arsenal's Cesc among others.

Smogen said...

Good with a defender and a midfielder, we dont need a winger when we have Pedro and Jeffren doing brilliantly in the pre-season.
Also, in crises, with an extra defender both Pique and Marquez would be able to play as a pivote.

fcbee said...

I think Muniesa and Fontas are doing even more brilliantly...

Anonymous said...

@ yuti - Villa has already won the Euro Championship with Spain last season. So no possibilities of ending up empty handed.

yuti said...

Yean, but at club level it's something different. Those are the guys you work with the whole year. Would be a shame for him not to win anything there.

creus said...

"The boy wanted to come. We went to Madrid to close the operation with Valencia but at the last minute they asked an exaggerated sum of money that was above our budget. I felt sad for Villa that it didn't go through."

So it was that close..? I feel sad for Barça and myself. Villa would have been way awesomer than Ibra.

lawrenzo loves barca said...

Sorry for villa.i hate valencia even more because they will surely go without a trophy.Maybe next season Barca will sign him and use Ibra as a supporting striker when Henry finally leaves though i still love Henry.

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