Barcelona vice president admits club can't sign Mbappe and Haaland amid Madrid admission

Barcelona's economic vice-president Eduard Romeu has admitted to losing out to fierce rivals Real Madrid on having the upper hand in negotiations with star players Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé. Barcelona has been in financial turmoil since its former president Josep Maria Bartomeu left. The club president Joan Laporta had come out and said that the club is in a €1.35 billion debt and that the current net worth of the club is negative €451 million. According to Romeu, the Blaugrana's current goal is to be stable again with no real hope to compete with Clasico rivals Madrid for the sought-after players.

When asked if Real Madrid could lure Mbappe away from PSG and Haaland from Borussia Dortmund to the Camp Nou, Romeu told Cadena Cope, as quoted by Goal.com, "It is possible because Real Madrid is a great club which has great potential and strength. If we had done our homework in recent years we would be in the same situation as them. Florentino Perez has managed the club in a way that we have to take our hat off to. At a business level, no one is going to question him."

Koeman on his way out of Barcelona?

Based on reports by Catalan outfit TV3, members of the Barcelona board of directors, had a meeting chaired by club president Joan Laporta to discuss the future of Ronaldo Koeman at the helm as head coach. His current deal will expire in June 2022 and the club would have to pay a severance package and find a replacement if they decided to sack him.

However, Barcelona vice president Romeu has said that letting go Koeman has not been discussed and categorically denied that money would be an issue if the club did want to sack the Dutchman. Romeu said in a news conference as quoted by ESPN on Thursday when asked if Barca's financial problems prevented the club from removing Koeman.

"The political answer is it has not been discussed and the real one is that it is not a money problem. But nothing is happening. There's nothing going on. Koeman's a good person. When the president and the board decide that he's staying on, the commitment (to him) and the support is total, knowing that we are going through a complicated moment in which we have to rebuild the team," Eduard Romeu.

(Image: AP)