Barcelona director of football Mateu Alemany has suggested that winger Ousmane Dembele has made it clear he wants to stay despite Newcastle United.
Newcastle links to Dembele
Let’s be honest; Newcastle have been linked with a ridiculous number of players since their takeover in October.
One of the first to be linked was Barcelona winger Dembele, who is out of contract at the end of the season.
Signed for a huge £135.5million in 2017, Dembele hasn’t quite lived up to his billing at the Camp Nou.
Foot Mercato claimed that Dembele was already negotiating a deal to join Newcastle as a free agent, worth around £250,000-a-week.
That would be quite the coup for Newcastle, but it doesn’t sound like Dembele is gearing up for life on the Tyne…
Alemany hints Dembele is staying
Barca director of football Mateu Alemany has now been quoted by SPORT on Dembele’s future.
Alemany claims that Dembele’s main ‘idea’ is to stay at Barcelona and renew his contract.
Barcelona have a ‘lot of confidence’ now that a deal will be done, with Alemany aiming for an agreement before the end of 2021.
That only gives Barcelona a few weeks, most likely trying to prevent a pre-contract agreement in January.
That’s a big blow for Newcastle, with Dembele now seemingly unlikely to head to St James’ Park in 2022, barring a major change.
“We’ve been working on it for a long time, always with the desire of reaching an agreement because his idea is to stay and he gives us a lot of confidence,” said Alemany. “We are now in a key moment. We hope that everything will be cleared up before the end of the year,” he added.
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