Barcelona VP: Neymar's PSG move inflated the whole market

Barcelona vice president Jordi Mestre believes Neymar's controversial move to Paris Saint-Germain - borne of a world record €222-million release clause being triggered - caused needless inflation of the entire transfer market.

Mestre thinks the nature of the move - that it was forced, and done without open communication - caused panic in the window, and thus inflated the transfer fees for players like Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele, who Barcelona signed as replacements.

"What hurt me the most was the way it happened," Mestre told Diario Sport, as quoted by ESPN FC's Sam Marsden. "We were all on tour talking with him and his father, and they were not transparent.

"If he came to us and said, I want to go, like Cesc (Fabregas), Pedro, Alexis (Sanchez), and (Javier) Mascherano, we would have reached an agreement.

"What you can't do is rock the boat. He played cat and mouse with us. He told us nothing. If he had done, PSG would have been able to buy him for less money and it would have cost us less to sign (replacements), too.

"What Neymar's behaviour created was the market inflation. We would have saved a lot of money and a lot of media noise."

Mestre's also believes a bonus loyalty payment in Neymar's contract - which the club is now attempting to hold out from paying - played a part in the situation.

"It got to a point where we saw where things were going so we told him we would not pay his contract renewal bonus," Mestre continued. "I'm convinced that's why he wasn't more open. And I'm annoyed about that. Now we will go to court and the judge will decide."