Barcelona head coach Ernesto Valverde admitted Neymar\u2019s world-record departure for Paris Saint-Germain was difficult for the LaLiga giants.<\/p>\n
Neymar completed a stunning Euro 222 million move to PSG after the Ligue 1 club activated the Brazil star\u2019s buyout clause in August.<\/p>\n
There was discontent among Barca fans after already watching bitter rivals Real Madrid win La Liga and the Champions League in 2016-17 and Valverde conceded it was a tough moment for the Catalan outfit.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeymar\u2019s departure was a difficult moment for the club,\u201d Valverde told Barcelona\u2019s official website. \u201cWe can\u2019t deny that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barca reinvested that money to replace Neymar, luring France forward Ousmane Dembele from Borussia Dortmund, while Liverpool\u2019s Philippe Coutinho continued to be linked.A thigh injury has curtailed Dembele\u2019s impact at Camp Nou, having last featured on September 16, though the 20-year-old is nearing a return as Valverde considers where to play the Frenchman.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny Barca player is a different player. Dembele\u2019s profile was different to anything we had,\u201d Valverde said. \u201cHe is able to play in various positions and is very fast. We have a big squad, we\u2019ve made good replacements up to now, and now he\u2019s coming back. It\u2019s great news.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wherever Dembele plays, it will revolve around five-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner Lionel Messi, whose 15 LaLiga goals have helped Barca to a nine-point lead atop the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cMessi is the best player in the entire world. He does something extraordinary with every ball he touches,\u201d the Spaniard added. \u201cWe have the incredible good fortune to have him at our club. I can see how he faces competition and his enormous commitment to the club and the team. In terms of his position, playing in the middle is good both for him and for us. However, he can play well anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barcelona head coach Ernesto Valverde admitted Neymar\u2019s world-record departure for Paris Saint-Germain was difficult for the LaLiga giants. Neymar completed a stunning Euro 222 million move to PSG after the Ligue 1 club activated the Brazil star\u2019s buyout clause in August. There was discontent among Barca fans after already watching bitter rivals Real Madrid win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16903,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16901\/revisions\/16903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}