Barcelona vice-president praises Real Madrid supremo Florentino Perez

The well documented financial problems at Barcelona has ensured that several star players have had to leave the club in recent times.

The Catalan giants were unable to renew the contract of Lionel Messi this summer while Antoine Griezmann also departed on the final day of the summer transfer window.

The club have had to made significant financial cutbacks over the past year including notable wage cuts and deferrals made by senior members of the first-team squad.

Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba were among those to agree to salary reductions to allow the club to register summer signings Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia and Luuk de Jong this campaign.

Florentino Perez has stabilised Real Madrid's financial position and is intent on signing Kylian Mbappe ( Image:

AFP via Getty Images)

Yet the late fire-sale saw Griezmann, Emerson Royal, Ilaix Moriba and Miralem Pjanic among the players to depart the club in a desperate attempt to slash their outgoings.

This stood in contrast to Barca's El Clasico rivals Real Madrid, who were frustrated in their attempts to sign Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe with a reported world record transfer bid.

Despite that transfer not coming to fruition, it was a display of Madrid's financial strength and their ability to recruit new players.

Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane may have left the Santiago Bernabeu this summer but the club secured the notable signings of David Alaba and Eduardo Camavinga - the in-demand teenager arriving from Rennes before the close of the window.

Mbappe is out of contract in Paris next summer and will be free to sign a pre-contract agreement with any club from January 1 with Los Blancos his likely destination.

Barcelona economic vice-president Eduard Romeu has now claimed that he believes it is possible for Real Madrid not only to sign Mbappe next summer but to sign the Frenchman and Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland.

Romeu claimed that Barca's fierce rivals have 'great potential and strength' economically to conclude the mega transfers next summer while lamenting his own club's financial position.

He has analysed that the Blaugrana should have been in the market for the players but due to not doing their 'homework' they will be left behind in the transfer market.

Romeu is quoted as saying by Cadena Cope : "It is possible (for both strikers to move to the Spanish capital) because Real Madrid is a great club which has great potential and strength, if we had done our homework in recent years we would be in the same situation as them.

"Florentino Pérez has managed the club in a way that we have to take our hat off to. At a business level, no one is going to question him."

Barca suffered a humbling three-goal loss at the hands of Bayern Munich in Tuesday night's clash in the Champions League with Romeu adding that the club still have a lot of work to do to reverse their situation.

He added, when asked of their financial reality: "The present and the future condition us a lot. We took the reins in March and in six months we have done an immense job to improve the situation at a structural level.

"We must continue working, but we intend to do so in the shortest possible time so that it is possible to return to a competitive level.

"We have to put the salary and expenses of the club in tune to be able to return to the world of transfers and compete face-to-face with the best clubs in Europe."