Team is better without Neymar, says Barcelona president Bartomeu

Bengaluru, September 6: Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has made a hilarious claim that the club are now stronger following the exit of Brazilian superstar Neymar.

The Brazilian sensation made his world-record move to PSG this summer from Barcelona but Bartomeu claims that Barcelona are better without the forward.

According to Spanish news outlet 'Sport', Bartomeu explained how the loss of Neymar provides 'opportunity’ to allow other players break into the first-team and cement their place in Ernesto Valverde’s side,

The deceased combination of the iconic 'MSN’ front-three comprised of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar are referred to by Bartomeu as the 'trident’.

When asked to evaluate Neymar’s exit from the attacking trio, he stated how it was not a problem and “his exit allows us to strengthen the model, to not fall back on the trident all the time.”

He explained how the club does not prevent players from leaving if they wish to do so but admitted that he has thought about increasing his players buy-out clauses.

Nevertheless, the Barcelona president told Sport that he believes the squad is better than last year’s stating:

“It’s better. Better on the right flank and in midfield. We can counter-attack and with Paulinho we’ve got a lot of strength. And up front we have players like (Gerard) Deulofeu and (Ousmane) Dembele.”

Following Neymar’s £198million world record transfer to PSG earlier this summer, the Catalan giants are planning to sue the player £7.8million over a breach of contract according to reports from 'Sky'.

Neymar had previously hit out at the Barcelona board stating “they shouldn’t be in charge.”

Many will argue that Barcelona have more depth than last season as on overall squad, but maybe isn’t as strong as Bartomeu considers it. Neymar, meanwhile, has started his Ligue 1 career on a high and is looking better than ever.