Former Barcelona Director admits regret over failing to sign €120m Liverpool target before 2022 PL move | OneFootball

Despite the club’s financial limitations, FC Barcelona always tries to remain involved in the market. For La Blaugrana, it is essential to have a grip on proceedings within the market one way or another. Unfortunately, the club’s financial power does play a part in restricting the Catalan giants.

Still, some regrets of the past continue to impact the club even today, it seems. At least, that is what can be inferred from the recent statements given by former Barcelona sporting director Ramon Planes, who spoke in depth about the topic of Newcastle United forward Alexander Isak in particular.

As quoted by SPORT, Planes recalled how Isak was supposed to be the successor to Luis Suarez at FC Barcelona while talking about the difficult departure of the Uruguayan forward:

However, even going a step beyond that, Planes claimed that not signing the €120 million-rated Swedish forward, while he was a Sporting Director at Barcelona, was a big regret for him and one that ultimately denied the club the chance to sign a long-term option for the striker position:

“Another regret: not signing Isak. I saw him as a perfect Barça forward—mobile, associative, technically strong. We were very, very close. Same with Darwin Núñez at Almería. We wanted to do a Pedri-style deal: sign him cheap and leave him on loan. But Benfica paid €25 million… Finding a striker for the next decade was a goal we couldn’t quite achieve.”

Fortunately, Barcelona managed to sign Robert Lewandowski, and the Polish striker has been a great asset for the club.

However, his age remains a big hurdle to his long-term continuity, and Isak himself is now heavily linked to Liverpool following his strong performances for Newcastle United in recent seasons, following his move to England in 2022.

As for the future, Barcelona remains linked to other strikers as possible options to consider signing in the near future. For now, however, it seems that Ferran Torres could even look to be a threat to Lewandowski’s starting position at the club.