Barcelona (Spain): New Barcelona signing Martin Braithwaite struggled to showcase his football skills during his official presentation at the Camp Nou here on Thursday.
Braithwaite failed to flick the ball into the air on consecutive occasions when using both of his feet.
Quique Setien's side completed the emergency signing of Braithwaite from Leganes for a fee of 18 million Euros (19.43 million US dollars), following Ousmane Dembele's long-term injury.
After joining the Blaugranes, Braithwaite said that he have studied Barcelona hard and he could not wait to get started.
"I'm really looking forward to it, Barcelona playing the best football in the world. Of course, I've been studying them. And it's about looking at each player, looking at the quality, looking at the movement, look how they pass, look how they cross, to be in the right areas all the time. That's what I've done and that's what I'll continue to do in like the next couple of days, to really study that hard. So, when it gets time to the game, I'll be in the right areas in the right moment," Braithwaite said.
Meanwhile, Leganes director general Martin Ortega has labelled Barcelona's transfer of Braithwaite "hugely damaging" in a press conference on Thursday.
"We find ourselves in a hugely damaging situation. A great damage. We can't understand the current rules that mean a club, suffering a long-term injury, can unilaterally carry out an operation and pass the problem onto another club. Because even though it is the player who gave the go ahead for the clause to be paid, it was FC Barcelona who gave the thumps up to do it giving him the money to deposit it," Ortega said.
Barcelona received permission from La Liga to apply for a new signing outside the transfer window because French winger Dembele suffered a long-term injury.
On the other hand, relegation-threatened club Leganes had no choice in the matter and can not sign a replacement of their own, something Ortega thought isn't right.
"We would understand this rule giving exceptional authorisation to FC Barcelona to acquire a new player if there were a mutual agreement between clubs. But not in the way it happened. Paying the clause unilaterally. The current rules go against the integrity of the competition and the right all clubs have to compete in equality between clubs. We'll do whatever it takes in a situation that causes irreparable harm," Ortega said.
