"In the history of this deal, we have not been allured by the behaviour of the English representatives. Manchester had a very good relationship with the player three or four months ago and they were sure he wanted to go to Manchester
"Manchester United was too sure of its facts, they thought they had done the difficult work by negotiating directly with the player and getting his agreement, but this hurt PSG.
"The leaders of the club undoubtedly did not have very good information or good financial understanding.
"In spite of the arrival of Alex Ferguson, they never wanted to confirm their verbal proposal of €33 million, despite that this was made in front of a witness.
"We lost their respect and it is not the player who has to choose the club, but PSG."
"Barca was always around €30 million, even if their first bid included two players in the Argentine [Juan Roman] Riquelme and [Phillipe] Christanval.
"Manchester started the negotiations very low on the financial terms and included Fabien Barthez in the first offer. In any event, their offers were always lower than Barcelona.
"I will go to Barcelona to sign the contract on Monday, but we already have the written agreement.
"This transfer was very difficult, but the principal message is that you should respect our club.
"There was often fierce bargaining, but that was because of the current context of the market.
Real wanted him, and he would have stayed with us for one season - but this could not be cemented.
"When I told Florentino Perez my decision on Saturday - he just said: "With this La Liga will be even stronger."