Barcelona president talks about Flick, Olmo, his recent form and Nico Williams: “I never said we would sign him”

Although the only item on the agenda of the Extraordinary Assembly of FC Barcelona was the ratification of the agreement with Nike, the club’s members took the opportunity to ask president Joan Laporta several important questions about the current state of the club.

The Barça boss was asked about the recent performance of the first team, given their recent slump in form which has seen them pick up just five points in their last six La Liga games.

Despite the relegation, Laporta strongly expressed his full support for coach Hansi Flick, saying:

“We have blind faith in Hansi Flick. He knows what he has on his hands. He is managing a team with young players and that can lead to situations like this.

“Young players with a lot of talent who have given us joy and generated great expectations. “Expectations remain intact.”

He then added: “The players should approach it as if we were starting from scratch and give it their all. With effort, talent and commitment we can achieve success.”

The club president also revealed that he had had several conversations with the German coach and that both were “angry and worried.”

However, continuing, Laporta added: “We concluded that if they had told us in August that we would be first in the League and second in the Champions League at the end of December, we would have signed it.

“It is true that the setbacks have cooled us because we had a comfortable and hopeful position in the League, but the team deserves confidence.”

However, Laporta sent a subtle message to the Barça squad reminding them of their current situation.

“It is also true that they have not won anything yet. They shouldn’t think that everything is done. I say this from my experience in the Rijkaard era, when we won the Champions League in 2006, and in the Pep era, in Rome in 2009.” said.

“Those were teams that had won a lot. The current team has not yet met the expectations set, but the hope is still intact. If the team starts with the mentality it had when the League started, everything will go well.” he concluded.

Another club member expressed concern about potential registration issues regarding Dani Olmo and asked how the club would have done the registration of Nico Williams if they had signed him last summer. Laporta responded firmly, saying:

“We never said we would hire him, we said we could reach an agreement of that magnitude. And we did a slightly smaller operation with Dani Olmo, which cost about 48 million euros.”

“The sports management thought it was more important to sign Olmo than other players. We have registered it temporarily and hope to do so permanently. There are always doubts about the registrations, but in the end we always manage to register them.” added the president of Barça.

Laporta also addressed the comments of the new president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Rafael Louzan, who praised the management of Florentino Pérez and referred to himself as a Madridista.

“Those are inappropriate statements. They are part of sociological Madridismo. All the powers there are Madridista. We are fighting this. “What we will not do is stop our demands,” said Laporta.

“They told us that we would go hand in hand, the Federation and the League. His statement was offensive. It was unnecessary.

“I hope it was a mistake, and that we can have a good relationship with the Federation, both Catalan and Spanish, as well as with UEFA and FIFA, which we already have,” he concluded.

Source: SPORT