In other words, he said that if City, Barca, Real, Chelsea or PSG want a player, we certainly can't compete with them financially. Something we all knew by now. Even if we make a financial sacrifice with a 40m eur transfer and 6m eur wages, we can lose on a player because the other teams will match the transfer fee and pay 8m for wages.
The difference between this summer and last summer, imo, is that this time we are in position to make a ~30m eur offer for a player. We weren't in the same position previously. But will that be enough to secure that player will depend solely on the interest City and co. show in the same player.