Mateu Alemany reveals how much Pique and Griezmann departures saved Barca

Mateu Alemany also took the mic during Joan Laporta's press conference to clarify the savings earned by the departures of Gerard Pique and Antoine Griezmann from FC Barcelona.

"The (freed) wages of Griezmann and Pique, who were under contract next year, mean 90 million less in squad costs for us. We reduce that amount of wage bill with two players,” explained the sporting director.

In addition, Alemany pointed out that the wage bill that the Blaugrana had was unsustainable in the medium and long term. "There was an unsustainable wage bill because the reality is that we had a wage bill of 655 million euros. Fair Play is the representation of a given situation. We have got rid of players we didn't count on and we have lowered the wage bill, but Barça need a competitive team," said the Blaugrana director of football.

"If we reach 400-480 million in wage bill it would be 60% of the income, which would be reasonable figures. We don't want to get rid of important players, but we have to lower the wage bill with less important players. We have to convince LaLiga to lower this limit," added Alemany.

"I will never stop praising the work of Mateu Alemany and the football management. We pulled the levers to have a competitive team. In the summer we will be able to reduce the wage bill by 170 million. Since we came in we have bought for 215 million and sold for 141 million," said president Laporta.

"We are always thinking about what you can foresee you will save, about the rules of 1:2, 1:4, 1:2.5. We insist that we have accredited savings of around 100 million. From this point onwards this has to result in savings. From here we have to count the renovations we have made and want to make and work on that scenario," Alemany concluded.