Barcelona want to keep winger Ousmane Dembele out of Arsenal’s clutches – and will ditch Adama Traore in order to make it happen.
That’s according to The Sunday Mirror (08/05, p72), who claim that Barcelona are ready to put an offer together for Dembele.
Dembele is out of contract this summer, meaning he could leave for nothing five years after Barcelona paid £135million to sign him.
The Frenchman hasn’t quite lived up to expectations but Barcelona are still keen to keep him at the Camp Nou.
It’s stated that Barcelona will now avoid paying £30million to sign on-loan Wolves ace Adama Traore.
The plan is to put that money towards a new contract for Dembele having seemingly not been impressed with Traore.
Traore only joined on loan in January but doesn’t seem to have done enough to stay at Barcelona.
The report curiously states that Barcelona want to get this deal done with Dembele because they don’t want him to join Arsenal or Manchester United this summer.
Dembele to Arsenal just doesn’t make sense anyway
Maybe Barcelona are just a little paranoid here as it just seems very unlikely that Arsenal will move for Dembele anyway.
Dembele is best deployed on the right flank but Arsenal have Bukayo Saka in that area of the pitch and he isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
Dembele could be used on the left but Arsenal already have Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe on that side.
Arsenal’s young talent means that a huge deal for a big-name winger sounds likely.
Yes, Nicolas Pepe may well move on this summer but Arsenal would be looking for competition for Saka rather than a big name like Dembele.
Add in that most of Arsenal’s budget will be focused on a striker and we just can’t see the Gunners wanting Dembele this summer.
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