Barcelona president gives spiky answer about signing Erling Haaland ahead of Man City

Barcelona president Joan Laporta insisted that his club will not 'participate' in signing players who demand extortionate personal terms and risk the finances of the club as he discussed in-demand strikers Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland.

Barca have tried to position themselves as a realistic destination for Haaland this summer, who is available for a release clause of £63m. However, any club who want to sign him - like Manchester City - will have to pay a considerable amount in salary, agent fees and other expenses on top of the transfer fee.

Laporta recently declared that Barcelona would walk away from any player if their wage demands broke their salary structure, and he has again repeated that stance in a fresh, strongly-worded rant to Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo.

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Asked specifically about Haaland, and his comments on possibly walking away from a deal, Laporta reacted firmly by insisting that the 'sustainability' of the club comes before the desire to sign any one player.

"I insist, I will not talk about specific players but I can tell you that we will not carry out any operation that puts the institution at risk," he said.

"It has been a maxim that we have followed since we became president again, it happened to us in various circumstances and we are going to continue with this philosophy and this criterion, not to put the institution at risk with operations that, not even if we were already healthy, we would

"So, you can talk about players, about big-money operations in which Barca is not going to lose its head. That the partners and the partners are calm because we are not going to lose our heads for an operation of these magnitudes.