Barcelona are well-known to be struggling financially, but there has been a ray of life to emerge from the situation: the promotion of numerous La Masia starlets. Hansi Flick, as well as his predecessor Xavi Hernandez, have shown a lot of faith in the academy, which has delighted supporters.

There have been claims that Barcelona would not have counted on the likes of Pau Cubarsi, Marc Bernal or Fermin Lopez had they been able to sign players under normal situation, but as per The Times, this has been rebuked by sporting director Deco.

“In terms of a sporting director, you need to look at what you have inside the club and then after you need to go to the market. When you have players like Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi, Gavi or Alejandro Balde, Marc Casado is an important player for us now, you don’t need to be in the market. You don’t need to buy players.

“People say to me, ‘Because of the financial situation, Barcelona are using young players’. It’s not true. We are using young players because they are good enough. If they are not good, it’s impossible to play for Barcelona. We had luck in terms of the quality of this generation, because we then didn’t need to go to the market in some positions. La Masia has helped us. But it has helped us because they are good players.”

Deco addresses Barcelona transfer struggles

Deco, who will lead Barcelona’s transfer efforts in 2026, has a big job on his hands to guide Barcelona back to a better financial situation, and he recognised that better work has to be put into moving players on.

“Our main idea is not to sell players, Barcelona is not a club that likes to do that. But of course we need to improve in terms of that, because sometimes you need to sell players too. To sell young players, you need control. You need to pay attention to when their contracts finish. You need to make a plan for their future.”