Laporta slams Pepe fee

Barca president Joan Laporta has hit out at Real Madrid for the fee they paid for Pepe.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has hit out at Real Madrid for inflating the transfer market after they paid £20million for Porto defender Pepe.

The Blaugrana supremo believes that the Portuguese defender was over-priced and that los Merengues should have been more responsible when negotiating.

While Laporta has overseen four new arrivals at Camp Nou, he believes they were all bought for a fair amount.

"The other teams know what they want, but it is true that when the amount becomes so big then all that it does is inflate the market," he said.

"We have to try and work within a realistic framework and with appropriate fees because, if not, then it will go mad and the prices will rocket.

"Barca have agreed to pay ?17.5m up front and ?3.5m depending on performances for (Gabriel) Milito and I believe that was what we had to pay.

"The negotiations were tough, but everyone carries out these talks based on the capacity that they have as a club and our technical secretary has been able to bring in a central defender of international standard."

Laporta defended the arrival of Thierry Henry, Eric Abidal, Yaya Toure and Gabriel Milito, after being criticised for panic buying after not winning a trophy last season.

"All our new players have cost us money, but they were players that we wanted and we would have signed whether we had won the league or not," he said.

The Catalan club's president could not resist one last dig at Real Madrid, after hearing that Bernd Schuster was still a member of Barcelona.

"It is curious, but I think it shows gratitude towards his history at Barcelona where he was always considered to be a great player," he added.

"I thank him for respecting the day that he decided to become a member of our club."