By Safiu Kehinde
Barcelona seemed to have had enough of Ousmane Dembele’s refusal to sign a new contract as they call for the immediate departure of the forward from the club.
The Catalan giants have concluded on the fate of the Frenchman, suggesting that he will not play for them again. According to Barcelona’s Director of Football, Mateu Alemany, the club intends to offload him before the Winter transfer window closes on January 31st.
“Today, 20 January, with 11 days left in the last window before the end of his contract, it is obvious that the player does not want to continue and is not committed to our future.
“In that scenario, he and his agents have been informed that he should leave immediately because we want players who are committed to our project. Therefore, we hope to transfer him before 31 January,” Alemany said.
The quest for Dembele’s contract extension, according to Alemany, started back in July. Their effort to retain the forward however proved abortive as his agent turned down the club’s offer.
Dembele was believed to have requested for £36 million-a-year new deal which could be evaluated to £700,000-a-week. This offer seemed too outrageous for the financially unstable Bluagrana who had instead offered the Frenchman a pay-as-you-play deal considering his injury woes and overhead cost. This did not augur well with Dembele and his agent. The deal was indeed ridiculous, compared to the amount he joined the club back in 2017.
Barcelona secured his service from Borussia Dortmund for a deal worth up to €140 million. Without putting into account his short spell at Dortmund, Barcelona’s desperate search for Neymar’s replacement then saw them cough out such huge amount for the injury prone winger.
As it is presently, his offer is unaffordable and the Catalan giants seek his forceful departure which was evident with his removal from the squad to face Athletic Bilbao today.
“The conclusion in sporting terms, as evaluated by the coaching staff, is that we don’t want players who are not committed. It’s not the club that takes this decision – the coach does – but he has all our support and we think it is an entirely coherent decision.” Alemany noted.
