Ernesto Valverde insists Barcelona hasn't abandoned its famed La Masia academy.

Barcelona has bought Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele in successive transfer periods to set club records with each fee.

Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Lionel Messi helped fuel Barcelona's resurgence a decade ago.

"Barcelona's model has always been the same," Valverde said in a news conference on Wednesday. "[The club] have always gone to the transfer market to sign the best players in the world. Many of the very best players have played here."

Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona, Romario, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic represent a handful of the big players that Barca have spent big money on in the past.

"At the same time, we always try to look at the academy," he added. "We want to bring players up [to the first team] based on their style of play and their development.

"You have to remember, we have been through a generation with special players like Xavi and Iniesta (...) sometimes more players will come through from the academy; sometimes there will be less. But we also need to sign players to keep ourselves at the top."

The calendar year of 2017 was one of the most eventful in soccer history in terms of high profile transfers, headlined by Neymar's $260 million move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain.

The following video shows soccer stars who changed clubs in 2017 as well as their transfer fee.