Barcelona were very much considering a number of exits this transfer market, as they continued to try and bring down their wage bill, offset the costs of unpaid asset sales and register star signing Dani Olmo. Manager Hansi Flick ended up stepping in to prevent a number of exits.
Last week it was reported that Inigo Martinez could have left for Saudi Arabia after the Blaugrana received a €5m bid for the Basque defender, a move that Flick decided to put a halt to. Marca have now revealed that Flick also prevented Eric Garcia and Ansu Fati leaving the club.
It is well-documented that Girona were interested in bringing Garcia back, and on Monday Quique Carcel admitted as much.
“We wanted Eric to return because he is a player who would have helped us be more competitive and define the coach’s game. It would have been an excellent signing on our part and that is why we asked Barca for it. I think they didn’t want him to leave, but everyone knows how things are at home, it’s a situation that they will know about. I tried, but it couldn’t be,” Carcel told MD.
Barcelona's 8 buy-back options. @jbatalla7
– Óscar Mingueza (€9m)
– Estanis Pedrola (€7m)
– Nico González (€30m)
– Francisco Trincão (€20m)
– Ez Abde (€20m)
– Mikayil Faye (€25m)
– Riqui Puig (€10m)
– Carles Aleñá (€10m).— barcacentre (@barcacentre) September 9, 2024
He would go on to emphasize that while Girona had lost a number of key players, the most important thing was that they had retained manager Michel Sanchez. He also confirmed progress was being made on Arnau Martinez’s renewal, but declined to comment on the child pornography scandal allegedly involving Girona B player Ferran Ruiz.
It was also revealed that Porto made a move for Garcia in the final days of the transfer market. Ansu Fati is set to return to full fitness this week, after doing part of Monday’s training session, and the Blaugrana also received approaches from Benfica, Porto and multiple Premier League sides for the 21-year-old. Nevertheless, Flick was concerned about their depth without all three, with injuries to Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen having an impact at the back in particular.
