Barcelona 'Prefer To Spend Millions' Than Trust Youngsters, A Serie A Winger Claims: Report

Young Spanish winger Carles Perez has claimed that FC Barcelona prefer to rather “spend millions” than trust the already existing young players in their squad.

The 22-year-old winger, who made his first-team debut in the 2019-20 season, scored two goals before he was asked to move to Roma on loan this January. Perez's maiden goal for Barca came in the Catalans' 5-2 win at home against Real Betis and he netted his second goal for Blaugrana against Inter Milan in a Champions League match.

Perez, who earlier played for Barcelona’s second-tier team, has said that he still does not understand why the Nou Camp side let him go to Serie A. The move was indeed surprising as later on in the season, Barcelona lost the likes of Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele to injuries and as a result, Martin Braithwaite was signed on an emergency transfer.

“I’m only thinking about succeeding at Roma. I have four more years on my contract and I’m focused on that. I didn’t understand my exit, but I respect the decision and thank the club for their treatment of me over the years. People talk about the academy, but sometimes they prefer to spend millions and don’t have patience with young players. That’s how it is. People have to forget my past there,” Perez said in an interview with Marca.

The Spaniard has so far made as many as seven appearances for Roma and scored his first goal for them against Ghent in the Europa League. Perez, who has decided to move on from Barcelona, has a clause in his contract that will allow Roma to sign him permanently for a fee of almost $12 million in the upcoming summer transfer window.

Currently, all the soccer leagues around the globe are suspended due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. The likes of France and Spain have declared an indefinite suspension of their respective top-flight soccer leagues, while England’s Premier League are still pondering over a restart date.

Before the lockdown, Barcelona had returned on the top of the La Liga table, while Liverpool FC continued to remain 25 points clear on the top of the Premier League table and Cristiano Ronaldo and Co also had managed to retain their top spot in Italy’s Serie A.