Deco talks De Jong, Lewandowski, Flick, Thiago, Rashford, Garcia, Bardghji, Inigo | OneFootball

In the recent past, Barcelona have made great efforts to renew the contracts of star players, with stars such as Lamine Yamal, Ronald Araujo and Jules Kounde, among others, penning new deals with the club.

Barça are not done yet, with a few more contract extensions lined up soon. One of them is Frenkie de Jong, who has once again become a critical player for the club.

The club have been in talks with the Dutchman for a few months now regarding a new deal. And now, sporting director Deco has effectively confirmed that the contract extension is imminent. He also talked about the future of other key stars.

Deco predicts imminent de Jong renewal

In a recent interview with Lance (h/t Mundo Deportivo), Deco confirmed, “We’re in talks. I think we’ll reach an agreement. He’s an important player for us.

“I think he’s happy at Barcelona. We’re happy with him, too. So I don’t think there will be any problems.”

The Barcelona sporting director also talked about the future of Robert Lewandowski, who could be playing his final season at the club.

“It’s a different situation. Robert was important, and he remains so for us. I also think that, given his age and his career, he’ll live year after year. There comes a time in a career when we don’t make many plans for the future.

“I think he’s focused on this year. We are, too, and we’ll see. He’s a player who depends much more on his will, how he feels, and how he sees things. And we’ll see his progress throughout the year. And we’ll talk about it,” he said.

A key highlight for Barcelona this season has been the way their two new signings, Marcus Rashford and Joan Garcia, have repaid the club’s faith.

Talking about Barcelona’s transfer strategy, Deco explained, “The main priority was to maintain what we had and try not to lose any important players.

“We managed to renew the contracts of Lamine, Raphinha, and Koundé. The idea was to maintain the foundation of the team we’ve been building over the last few years and try to improve.”

Talking about Joan Garcia, who has recently received praise from former Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic, Deco said:

“Joan Garcia was a goalkeeper we’d been monitoring for a while. He wasn’t a priority this summer, but he ended up becoming one due to Ter Stegen ‘s injuries last year. We made this decision in a position where we hadn’t had this urgency for two years.”

Deco is happy with Joan Garcia. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

As for Rashford, the Barcelona sporting director added, “We needed a player like him, who can play both on the wing and inside. That was part of our thinking.

“The summer was focused on that; we didn’t think we needed to make an urgent change, unless something happened at the last minute.”

Rashford hasn’t disappointed either, notably starring in the recent win over Newcastle United by scoring a stunning brace.

Deco, meanwhile, also talked about Barcelona’s other new signing, Roony Bardghji.

“We brought Roony, who is a young lad, and we have been monitoring him for a while. We brought in a lot of young players for preseason, and we have two or three players who we think can establish themselves in the first team,” he said.

While Barcelona did a stunning job of bringing in new talents, the club also had to offload Inigo Martinez – a departure that has impacted the team in a big way.

Talking about Martinez’s surprise move to Al Nassr, Deco said the club wanted to allow the veteran defender to finish his career as he wanted.

“It was an unforeseen problem with Iñigo Martínez, who had an offer from Saudi Arabia. It was a different matter, especially given his age, and we had to let him finish his career as he wanted, out of gratitude,” he said.

Deco went on to talk about Barcelona’s Champions League ambitions and their opponents in the future, including Paris Saint-Germain.

“There are many teams that have strengthened very well, like Liverpool, who have signed players, and Real Madrid too. The teams are better. We need to be very strong if we want to aspire to the final,” he said.

Deco heaped praise on PSG, in particular, predicting them to become one of the key candidates for the UCL again.

“PSG are an incredible team; they’ve managed to build a squad in recent years, they’ve made the right signings, they have a coach I really like, who is very competitive and serious, and they’re one of the main candidates to win the Champions League again.

“It’s going to be a good and attractive match, but it’s more of a qualifying match. We have to take it one game at a time.

“There’s no point in dreaming about the Champions League if we don’t get past the group stage. It’s a good match, but we’ll try to get points to achieve our goal, which is to qualify,” he added.

Deco also welcomed UEFA’s move to allow the top two teams in the league stage to retain home advantage till the semifinal stage.

“I think last season was unfair with away games. The advantage of being in the top eight was lost for a while. We played practically all of the second leg matches of the knockout phase away from home, such as the quarter-finals and semi-finals.

Can Flick’s Barcelona win the Champions League this season? (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

“I thought the best teams should have that advantage. They rectified that this year, so there’s always room for improvement, but I like the model,” he said.

Deco was also asked about how Barcelona have evolved from Xavi Hernandez to Hansi Flick. In response, he admired the work of the Catalan while justifying the appointment of Flick.

“Xavi was important in his time; he brought stability and managed to win. This transition from Xavi to Hansi. Maybe what we thought at the time was that we needed someone with different managerial skills, for several reasons,” he explained.

“I think it ended up fitting perfectly in that sense. Everything worked out well. Hansi is a modern coach. He was very successful with Germany and then with Bayern. The idea of ​​​​Barcelona is always a team that looks for the game, that tries, that proposes,” he said.

“You can argue about quality, but you don’t see a defensive team. Hansi managed to improve and maximise the potential of the players we had. I think that was the key to the success of last season,” he added.

Finally, Deco talked about Barcelona’s recent appointment of Thiago Alcantara as part of Flick’s coaching staff and what he can bring to the table.

“When Hansi arrived, he helped for just over a month. It was the transition after his departure. Due to the relationship we had, Hansi included him in the coaching staff, and he was very important at the beginning,” he said.

“Thiago is someone who knows the club very well, a good person, someone who will contribute a lot. I think that for us, the coach’s safety, his comfort, is also fundamental, so it’s his commitment, and the club fully supports him,” he concluded.