Neymar was booed by the Paris Saint-Germain fans throughout his first appearance of the season against Strasbourg on Saturday
Barcelona "did everything possible" to try and sign Neymar this summer but think his club Paris Saint-Germain "never wanted to sell him," according to the Catalan side's chief executive.
The Brazil international was repeatedly linked with a return to Barcelona during the transfer window.
The 27-year-old joined Paris St-Germain from Barcelona in 2017 for a world record fee of 222m euros (£200m).
"We made a very big effort to get Neymar," said CEO Oscar Grau.
"We did everything possible. We made two offers, one including players and one without them but we got the feeling PSG never wanted to sell him.
"We are not going to lose control when it comes to players. We want the best team around but we also want to be sustainable."
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Neymar missed PSG's first five games of the season as he attempted to seal his move back to Barcelona before returning to the side for last weekend's Ligue 1 match at home to Strasbourg.
The 27-year-old was booed by his own fans throughout the game before scoring an injury-time overhead-kick winner.
He said afterwards that the crowd's reaction means "every game I play will be an away game".
Barca predict record revenue
Meanwhile, Barcelona say they will become the first sports club to generate revenue exceeding 1bn euros (£884m) this season.
The Spanish giants revealed revenues of 990m euros last season and project an increase to 1.047bn euros for the 2019/20 campaign.
A Barca statement said: "This figure represents a new record in the world of sport, and means the surpassing of internal forecasts, since the strategic plan approved by the board of directors expected profits to reach the figure of 1bn euros in 2021."
Source: bbc.com