Deco on Barcelona’s exits was always going to be the awkward part of the sporting director’s post-window debrief. Five wins from five and 22 goals have made the arrivals look inspired — but a long list of familiar names left the Spotify Camp Nou this summer, three of them dressing-room favourites, and on Thursday Deco finally went through them one by one.
Speaking to SPORT, in comments relayed by Barca Universal, the Portuguese addressed the departures of Ferran Torres, Marc Casado and Ronald Araujo, explained why Anthony Gordon got the permanent deal that Marcus Rashford did not, and lifted the lid on the deliberately secretive process behind the whole summer. The message throughout: none of this was a clear-out.
Deco on Barcelona’s exits: ‘If he asks to leave, we’ll let him go’
Ferran Torres was the biggest sale of the window, joining Paris Saint-Germain for a reported €48.5 million. It was a departure plenty of supporters questioned at the time. Deco’s explanation was less about money than mood.
“The players at Barca need to be happy and giving 100 per cent,” he said. “I’m happy for him and his hat-trick. Football is all about morale; we all started well. He wanted to go out there and make his mark. If he asks to leave, we’ll let him go. He contributed so much. I wish him all the best at PSG.”
That hat-trick reference is not a throwaway. Ferran has begun life in Paris in exactly the form Barca fans remember from his best spells in Catalonia, and he has already been asked about his old club’s European chances — naming the Blaugrana among the favourites for this season’s Champions League. Selling a 26-year-old forward who is scoring freely is the kind of decision that gets revisited in May, and Deco knows it. His defence is that a player who wants a bigger role is not a player you keep by force.
Casado: ‘It’s harder when a home-grown player leaves’
The exit that genuinely hurt was Marc Casado’s loan to Deportivo La Coruna, a move that includes a €30 million option to buy. Casado is La Masia through and through, a midfielder who came through the academy, broke into Flick’s first team and ended this window on his way out of the door.
“It’s harder when a home-grown player leaves,” Deco admitted. “He’s a die-hard Barca fan. He’s an example to the youngsters of resilience and persistence. That’s the way football is — not everyone can play. It’s a tough decision. We’re looking for a solution. He decided where he wanted to go on loan.”
The maths behind it is brutal but simple. Barca signed Rodri from Manchester City for around €60 million to play in Casado’s position, with Marc Bernal, Pedri and Gavi all competing for minutes in the same area of the pitch. Frenkie de Jong’s long-term knee injury opened a gap, but not one wide enough to promise a young holding midfielder the games he needed. The detail worth holding on to is that Barca structured this as a loan with an option rather than a sale — and that Casado, not the club, chose the destination.
Araujo: ‘Sometimes our ideas don’t align’
The most revealing answer of the interview concerned Ronald Araujo’s loan to Liverpool, which carries a purchase option reported at around €55 million. Deco watched the Uruguayan play at Anfield on Wednesday night, where Araujo marked his big European evening with a backheel assist in a 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid. The centre-back has since made a point of saying he is still following his old club closely, per Mundo Deportivo, calling the Blaugrana Champions League favourites who are “flying”.
“I watched the Liverpool match yesterday. I love him. I’m fond of him; I want him to succeed,” Deco said. “Personally, I love him. At times, he hasn’t been able to perform at his best. His time at Barca has been spectacular. Sometimes, our ideas don’t align. He’s under contract with us; it’s still too early.”
Read that twice. It is affection and a shrug in the same breath — warm about the man, honest about the football, and pointedly non-committal about what happens next. “He’s under contract with us” is the operative phrase: Barca have not sold Araujo, and Deco is not pretending the decision has been made. Liverpool hold an option, not an obligation, and the sporting director appears content to let the season answer the question.
Rashford, Gordon and the hunt for intensity
Deco was also asked why Barca committed to Anthony Gordon permanently while letting Marcus Rashford’s spell simply end. “We’re grateful to Rashford,” he began — before making it clear the choice came down to a specific, measurable need.
“We watch all the training sessions and analyse the team. We have a clear idea of what we’re looking for,” Deco explained. “One of the difficulties last year was that, without Raphinha, the team’s energy levels dropped; they were lost. We needed more intensity. We analysed lots of wingers.”
He added that recruiting from England is far from straightforward: “Signing players from the Premier League is almost impossible.” Barca did it anyway, twice, paying a reported €70 million for Gordon and around €60 million for Rodri, and adding Karim Adeyemi from Borussia Dortmund for roughly €22 million.
The logic is coherent, and it explains a lot about how Hansi Flick’s side have started the campaign. Barca’s press has been relentless, their counter-pressing constant, and the sheer running in the front line is why 22 goals have arrived in five games without a conventional centre-forward leading it — Raphinha has been the focal point instead, and he has eight goals to show for it.
The closed working group
The other theme running through Deco’s interview was secrecy. Neither the Gordon deal nor the Rodri deal leaked in advance in any meaningful way, and that was by design.
“We have a closed working group. If it were up to the press, we’d sign 50 players,” he said. “It’s normal — we’re all curious. If there’s a lot of speculation, it can sometimes complicate our transfers, because agents or clubs change the terms. Barca’s name carries a lot of weight; it makes waves around the world.”
“It seems that whenever a player catches Barca’s eye, everyone else wants him too,” Deco continued. “We’ve stuck to our plan, working with Bojan and the manager. Some things aren’t worth explaining until they’ve been finalised. We had a clear idea of what we were going to be looking for this summer. Leaks don’t always work out; they don’t help.”
There is a certain irony in the sporting director praising discretion during the one saga that was conducted entirely in public: the failed pursuit of Julian Alvarez, which ended with a rejected offer, a complaint to the RFEF and a deadline-day scramble for Gabriel Jesus. Deco’s argument is that the noise around Alvarez is precisely what he is describing — a negotiation made harder by being fought in the newspapers.
How the window actually looks now
A fortnight on from deadline day, the shape of it is clear. Out went Robert Lewandowski as a free agent, Ferran Torres to PSG, Ansu Fati to Monaco, Inaki Pena to Panathinaikos, Hector Fort to Real Sociedad and Rashford at the end of his spell, with Araujo, Casado and Marc-Andre ter Stegen leaving on loan. In came Gordon, Rodri, Adeyemi, Joao Cancelo on a free, Dominik Livakovic and, at the last, Gabriel Jesus from Arsenal.
On the evidence of five matches it has worked, though Deco was careful not to get carried away by Wednesday’s 5-1. “I thought we’d get off to a good start, playing strongly. We aim to win and play well. We didn’t expect to score so many goals,” he said. “Feyenoord have a good team and a good manager, and it looks as though yesterday’s result came easily. The result is encouraging and gives a sense of dominance, but it was actually quite a difficult match.”
The exits will be judged over a season, not a fortnight. If Araujo thrives at Anfield and Casado becomes a mainstay somewhere else, the questions will come back. For now, Deco has done something Barca sporting directors rarely bother with: explained the departures, name by name, without pretending any of them were easy. You can read our full breakdown of every 2026 signing and exit for the complete picture.
