Former Barcelona director Ramon Planes admits that Lautaro Martinez, Manuel Locatelli and Dusan Vlahovic came close to joining the La Liga giants over the last few years.
Lautaro was a top target for the Catalans in the 2019-20 and Planes has revealed why the Argentinean didn’t move to the Nou Camp.
“He was really, really close,” he said in an interview with Sky Sport Italia.
“The situation changed with COVID. We had held many meetings with his agents and Inter directors before the pandemic, which has changed football at an economic level.”
Planes worked at Barcelona from 2018 until 2021 and the Blaugrana almost secured the signatures of two other Serie A stars during his time at the club. Asked whether Barcelona held talks for Manuel Locatelli and Dusan Vlahovic, he replied: “Yes, for both.”
“Vlahovic is really strong. We wanted to sign him on loan two years ago,” he continued.
“Locatelli is a perfect player for Barcelona, but Juventus are an important club and in the end, we didn’t get him.”
Locatelli joined Juventus on an initial loan deal with an obligation to buy from Sassuolo in the summer, while Vlahovic completed a permanent €70m move from Fiorentina in the January transfer window.
The deal comes with €10m add-ons. Vlahovic has scored one goal in his first four appearances with the Old Lady and will make his Champions League debut against Villareal tonight.
L'ex ds del Barcellona: "Lautaro è stato vicinissimo al Barça, il Covid ha fatto saltare tutto" https://t.co/PqxuqDLPap
— TUTTOmercatoWEB (@TuttoMercatoWeb) February 22, 2022
The teams that are always closest to bankruptcy are always claiming they were going to sign this player or that one. Usually the teams that have asked players to take pay cuts, But somehow get around FFP rules. And no one in Italy cares about the thoughts of a Barca director.
And no one in Spain care about your thoughts