Neymar’s Move Won’t Stop Messi From Signing His Contract – Jordi Mestre

Barcelona vice-president Jordi Mestre has come out to say the board would prefer “respect not insults” after the club unveiled Paulinho as their fourth signing of the summer on Thursday.

Paulinho joins Barcelona from Guangzhou Evergrande for €40 million in a transfer most Barcelona supporters despise and has led to calling for president Josep Maria Bartomeu to resign.

The campaign comes after a series of poor management decision fans feel the club have made, with the signing of a 29-year-old for such a high fee from the Chinese Super League deemed the “can’t take it no more” moment.

“Fans are free to express what feelings they want,” Mestre said at Paulinho’s presentation. “We would prefer respect, not insults, but I have no knowledge that Bartomeu will resign [because of the campaign].

“There have been better times during our mandate, but we’ve come through difficult times. So we need to keep working hard and hope once again that things will work out for the better.”

Asked if he was affected by the circumstances surrounding his signing, Paulinho said: “My life has always been about dealing bravely with challenges. I don’t like to talk about these things, but about what’s important, which is playing on the pitch and helping Barca win titles.

“Things that aren’t related to that don’t worry me. I just worry about doing my job properly, with humility. I am ready for this, that’s why I accepted [the proposal] to come here and to pursue my dream.

Of course there’s pressure and there will be pressure. I’ve dealt with pressure before, but I feel I can deal with it.”

“We have spoken about things and agreed things and it’s just a question of setting a date to sign the papers,” he said. “We’re quite clear about this, we’ve been sorting things out over several months. I would be very surprised if Messi didn’t sign his extension.”