Girona president Pere Guardiola has admitted he is not planning to part ways with midfielder Oriol Romeu this summer but revealed he has a meeting scheduled with Barcelona in the coming days.
Barcelona want two new midfielders this summer following the departure of the influential Sergio Busquets and former La Masia starlet Romeu has been identified as a serious target.
The 31-year-old has a release clause of under €10m written into the Girona contract he signed last summer, making him a feasible target for Barcelona.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta recently angered Girona fans by claiming to L'Esportiu: "If we sign a player from Girona, Barça is helping Girona. Any purchase operation we do with Girona, or loaning them players, I think we're helping Girona. I see it that way."
In response, Girona's Guardiola urged Laporta to rethink his approach if they truly want to 'help'.
"If Barça wants to do us a favour, they don't sign Oriol from us," Guardiola told the media. "It's a reality. We're planning the season with him here, so they're not doing us any favours.
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"17-18 days ago we spoke with Mateu [Alemany, Barcelona sporting director] to find out what the situation was and two days ago we arranged to see each other soon.
"We have said from the first day that we are planning the season with him in it, he is very important for us. Our position is clear, there is no issue at the moment. We will see how we move, Oriol has a contract with us, we plan everything with him and from the outset we do not consider anything else than Oriol is still here."
The relationship between the two Catalan sides has soured since Girona's return to La Liga, which was marked by a video from the Gironistes showing a young child choosing their shirt over a Barcelona kit. Last summer also saw Barcelona prove tricky to work with as Girona tried to sign Ez Abde, Mika Marmol and Alex Collado.
Former Girona president Francesc Rebled, a current socio at Barcelona, recalled to El Confidencial how Barcelona refused to help his club between 2013 and 2015.
"My personal opinion is that Barça has no interest in helping the rest of the Catalan clubs and, at that time, they had a policy of not giving us footballers," he explained.
"We needed players because our economic situation was bad and only Espanyol in Catalonia helped us. We spoke with Joan Collet, the Espanyol president at the time, and he loaned us players at a good price. With Barça it was impossible and, what's worse, they gave up players to other teams in our league instead of us.
"What happens is that Barça is a vacuum cleaner and has never been interested in another team growing."
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This article was originally published on 90min as Oriol Romeu: Girona president confirms meeting with Barcelona.
