Barcelona chief Deco appears to aim dig at Man City over their £180m January transfer spending spree

Barcelona sporting director Deco has appeared to aim a dig at Manchester City over their £180million January transfer splurge.

City brought in Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and Nico Gonzalez in the winter window in a bid to strengthen their underperforming squad this season.

Pep Guardiola said last month the club’s positive net spend over the past five years has allowed them to release the purse strings now and promised a further overhaul of the squad in the summer. 

And ex-Barca star Deco seemingly aimed a thinly-veiled barb at City’s outlay as he hinted Guardiola’s side still needed to ‘renew’ their squad.

‘Manchester City spent more than €200m in January,’ Deco said in an interview with Catalan station TV3.

‘We can’t afford it, today. But we don’t need to bring three or four players either. They need a renewal [of the squad]. We’ve already done it. We signed three years ago, and the youngsters have established themselves.’

LaLiga is governed by stringent financial laws that have seen Barcelona in particular struggle to register players without compromise in recent seasons.

The club have been mired in financial crisis and were only able to re-register £50m signing Dani Olmo in January following a controversial injunction.

According to reports in Spain, Barcelona will look to add a star to their forward line and reinforce the full-back positions in the summer. 

City’s near £200m outlay in the recently-closed window came as they tried to rejuvenate a struggling squad.

The Premier League champions are 15 points adrift of leaders Liverpool and were forced into the Champions League play-off round after a disappointing campaign.

Guardiola’s side threw away a 2-1 lead to lose 3-2 to Real Madrid in the first leg of their knockout play-off at the Etihad on Tuesday.