Barcelona were never interested in Bruno Fernandes: Eric Abidal

abidal-on-messi

Barcelona sporting director Eric Abidal has disclosed that the Catalan club never wanted to sign Bruno Fernandes after the midfielder signed for Manchester United from Sporting CP.

Abidal while speaking to Sport said that although he admires Portugal international, but said that the current La Liga champions were more interested in signing Valencia forward Rodrigo than Bruno.eric-abidal

“He [Fernandes] is an interesting player, but the agents try to do their job,” Abidal said. “We did not have that need. They sell you the product, but we were not interested at all. Rodrigo really interested us.”

If one believes a report from Metro, Bruno completed an €80 million (£67.6 million) deal with the former Sporting skipper finally making a move to Old Trafford after protracted negotiations.

Earlier, Sky Sports News had reported on January 28 that Barca were aiming to snatch the Portuguese from United’s hands with a late bid and would then use the midfielder to sign Rodrigo.bruno-fernandes-man-utd
It was reported the Catalan club would negotiate an 18-month loan for Fernandes to Valencia.

However, United eventually signed their primary target while Abidal has now said that the Spanish giants were never interested in signing the player.

Bruno went on to make his Premier League debut on Saturday in their goalless draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers, and the midfielder will now be used for his creativity by the Red Devils.

Speaking to fan outlet Batzine, Valencia president Anil Murthy explained Barca’s bid for Rodrigo fell short of their valuation: “Valencia did not receive a suitable offer that reflected the high quality of the player. Everyone in the market knows what Valencia were asking for.

“And if you can offer with real cash, then great. If you can’t guarantee an exact kind of payment, then we can’t go through with it. We’ll not entertain offers which are not backed by money, because it also destabilises the player.”

Barcelona ended January without signing any potential replacement for Luis Suarez who has been ruled out for reportedly the entire season due to a knee injury.

The Catalans announced the January signings of Braga’s Francisco Trincao and Palmeira’s Matheus Fernandes, but both will remain with their respective clubs until the summer.