Barcelona president Joan Laporta has hit out at Real
Madrid for inflating the transfer market after they paid £20million
for Porto defender Pepe.
The Blaugrana supremo believes that the Portuguese defender was
over-priced and that los Merengues should have been more
responsible when negotiating.
While Laporta has overseen four new arrivals at Camp Nou, he
believes they were all bought for a fair amount.
"The other teams know what they want, but it is true that when the
amount becomes so big then all that it does is inflate the market,"
he said.
"We have to try and work within a realistic framework and with
appropriate fees because, if not, then it will go mad and the
prices will rocket.
"Barca have agreed to pay 17.5m up front and 3.5m depending on
performances for (Gabriel) Milito and I believe that was what we
had to pay.
"The negotiations were tough, but everyone carries out these talks
based on the capacity that they have as a club and our technical
secretary has been able to bring in a central defender of
international standard."
Laporta defended the arrival of Thierry Henry, Eric Abidal, Yaya
Toure and Gabriel Milito, after being criticised for panic buying
after not winning a trophy last season.
"All our new players have cost us money, but they were players that
we wanted and we would have signed whether we had won the league or
not," he said.
The Catalan club's president could not resist one last dig at Real
Madrid, after hearing that Bernd Schuster was still a member of
Barcelona.
"It is curious, but I think it shows gratitude towards his history
at Barcelona where he was always considered to be a great player,"
he added.
"I thank him for respecting the day that he decided to become a
member of our club."