Barca bids for Beckham and Giggs revealed
Serra Ferrer left Camp Nou after five years with the Catalan giants, in which time he was sports director, manager and coach.
The Mallorcan-born trainer left the club in July and he has now revealed some of the secrets from his time in Catalunya.
"The deal for Marc Overmars was one that materialised in spite of a problem with his knee and the first year with Barcelona is always complicated for any player," explained Serra Ferrer.
"When Figo left us, it was not only a great player departing, but the spiritual leader of the team itself.
"The team never recaptured the spirit it lost from Figo and we suffered because of that."
Serra Ferrer then revealed the plethora of targets the club tried to sign after Luis Figo joined rivals Real Madrid in 2000.
"I said that we should try and buy Beckham, he would have adapted perfectly to the style of Barcelona," said the former Barca chief.
"But we could not bring him, soon after this we thought about getting Giggs, we again made moves, but it was not to be.
"We asked about Henry also, but again nothing. The following one after that was Kewell and the same happened.
"After all this we had to try and act quickly, but all these players were forwards. We also tried buying in other positions and spoke about [Cristian] Chivu and [Francesco] Toldo, who were also on the list."
Serra Ferrer then talked about Emmanuel Petit, who struggled under his guidance.
"Petit was an interesting player, he was a multipurpose and technically a very good one," he said.
"He had the ability to play in defence, but after coming from the World Champions France, he was not use to these conditions. It all became complicated and it was never really understood about him playing in defence.
He then talked about his struggle with Barca president Joan Gaspart.
"Things are very different, there are presidents whom respect things and they support the players whilst keeping their distance, without being on top of you - that should be the trainers area," he explained.
"The president should support whoever is in charge, Gaspart does not do these things.
"He works with his heart and says everyone is friends, but the reality is different.
"I do not believe that Gaspart wanted to discredit me or spoil the harmony of the team, he thought he was completely opposite to this, soon it became apparent the complications of the issue."
