Barcelona Had To Avoid A Bidding War With Real Madrid For Arda Guler – Laporta

Barcelona president, Joan Laporta has come out to insist that it would have been a mistake for the club to sign Arda Guler. He recently had his say following his move to Real Madrid, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, despite already agreeing to pay Fenerbahce €17.5m for the Turkish talent, Real Madrid stepped in and offered more money, so Barcelona had to avoid a bidding war amid its financial troubles.

Laporta added that the club simply had to step aside to not pay more money than it should for the player.

His words, “We had an agreement with the player, and we were ready to pay Fenerbahce €17.5m,”

“But then other clubs came in, like Real Madrid, and paid much more. That’s when we thought we shouldn’t get into a bidding war. We have other good players.”

“We moved away from the Guler operation because of the magnitude it was reaching. We thought it would be a mistake on our part. There are more players that I think we can get without entering such a bidding war. We could have come to compete for Guler, but we decided not to. We have a certain line and we don’t cross it. Neither with Arda nor with other players who want to come to Barca.”