“Last year we reached an agreement with Juventus: if they wanted to sell Pogba we would have a priority,” he said. “That was the commitment that we had. Juve did not want to sell the player and we didn’t have the need to sign him.

“Barcelona has always had a great relationship with Juventus. If we would have wanted to do the deal, nobody could advance us.

“We signed six players with €120million. If one club can pay €120m for one player [it] will be very difficult to sign great players.”

Barcelona ended the transfer window by signing Valencia striker Paco Alcacer in a €30million deal.