Ousmane Dembele’s long standoff with Barcelona seems to be heading to a melting point. Following extended contract negotiations with the player’s agent for several months and their continued unreasonable financial demands, the 24-year-old has been left out of Barcelona’s squad to face Athletic Club in Copa Del Rey.
In the press conference ahead of the clash, head coach Xavi Hernandez had delivered an ultimatum: Dembele has to renew or leave the club.
Today, the sporting director of the club Mateu Alemany didn’t mince words while explaining the situation that the Frenchman will now have to find a new club. With six months remaining on his contract, the club tried repeatedly to extend his stay but to no avail.
Therefore, they want to offload him and get some of their investment back in the winter transfer window. If Dembele doesn’t leave, he could spend the next six months in the stands while Barcelona have also hinted at the possibility of rescinding his contract.
“We started conversations with Ousmane and his agents back in July, more or less. In all this time, these six or seven months, we have spoken, we have had dialogue, we have made various offers.
We looked at ways that he could stay with us. All those offers were turned down by his agents. The fact that he is not in the squad is no more than a consequence of this whole process.”
Alemany stated.
Despite Dembele expressing his interest in continuing at Barcelona to Xavi, there has been no commitment on the part of him and his agent in the financial negotiations.
The arrival of Spanish winger Ferran Torres from Manchester City earlier in January also seemed to upset him. Xavi, however, sees no point in giving minutes to a player who isn’t committed to the future of the club, and Alemany also suggested the same.
The Frenchman joined Barcelona in the 2017/18 season from Borussia Dortmund and played 131 games during his stay at Camp Nou, scoring a total of 31 goals.
