Barcelona's sporting director, Anderson Luis de Souza “Deco,” stated on Tuesday that he and his team were clear "from the start" that they did not want to "sell any important players" this season.

In an interview released by the Catalan club, Deco revealed that Barcelona received "offers for several players," but emphasized that if the club wants to continue growing, it cannot be a selling team.

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“If in recent years we’ve been building a team, we can’t dismantle it. The idea has always been to raise the level, not lower it, and selling any important player would lower the level,” he argued.

Deco admitted that "resisting the temptation to sell was not easy" due to financial fair play regulations: "Not selling is very difficult because if you don’t sell, you can’t buy, but we were clear from the start that it was important not to sell key players and to know what we had at home."

In this regard, Deco justified the reliance on La Masia "not out of necessity, but because there are players of quality" to wear the Barça shirt. "The idea was that if these young players performed, we wouldn’t have to go to the market as much," he pointed out.

Regarding the signing of Dani Olmo, Deco explained that he provides "a lot of balance in midfield" and is a "quite different" player from those already in the squad. "With him, we also gain in offensive quality," he emphasized.

As for Hansi Flick, the new coach, Deco described him as "a calm man, a football person, hard-working, very demanding, and with clear ideas."