Barca’s offer for Neymar – a bluff?

According to Marca journalist Luis Rojo, Barcelona knew they weren’t likely to pull off the deal to bring back Neymar to Camp Nou this summer.

The Catalan club knew, even before the transfer window had begun, that they wouldn’t be able to afford both Neymar and Antoine Griezmann. Therefore, they decided that the Atletico Madrid forward (at the time) should be the priority over the Paris Saint-Germain star. And once they spent almost €130 million on Griezmann, it was impossible to pay out the French club’s demands in cash.

The only solution they deemed plausible was to offers players along with some part of the demanded fee, but PSG eventually turned all such offers down, apart from which it seems none of the players in question actually wanted to move to Paris.

It turns out that Neymar’s return to Catalonia was never truly on the cards, despite constant speculative reports claiming it was getting closer.