As quoted by the Guardian, Marcel Brands has revealed that we could not afford a permanent deal for Andre Gomes from Barcelona.
The Director of Football has been pretty open with things in terms of transfer discussion this year and here we see another example of this.
Indeed, it suggests we are perhaps not as rich as other clubs and fans would have you believe with the way they go on about us spending huge masses of money.
We’ve got financial backing, let’s not be silly, but we are evidently a bit more savvy than the casual, or even lazy, onlooker would have you believe.
Brands said:
“They [Barcelona] told me about the other players who it was maybe possible to get. I asked about Gomes and they said no, he was only for sale.
“I knew the price and it was not possible for us so we left that. In the end, he got injured in pre-season and we started talking about him again.
Clearly, then, we have got our heads screwed on when it comes to spending and I think this shows that we can say no to players if the deal doesn’t work for us.
I like some of what Brands has done of late and hope that that can continue…