Could the Premier League come to Ousmane Dembele’s rescue? Barcelona’s La Liga flop is reportedly an Arsenal and Liverpool target.
Arsenal have emerged as a potential destination for Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembele this summer, according to AS, with the £96 million forward facing an increasingly uncertain future at the Camp Nou.
Three years ago, the La Liga giants splashed out an obscene sum for a 20-year-old forward who, at the time, had just two seasons of senior football under his belt.
And it would be one hell of an understatement to suggest that Dembele has barely come within a mile of a price-tag which, at the time, made him the second most expensive footballer in the history of the game (BBC).
Question marks over his decision-making, attitude and fitness have dogged a miserable three-year spell at the Camp Nou with the former Borussia Dortmund wonderkid managing just 35 La Liga starts so far – three of which have come in 2019/20.
Reports from Spain suggest that Arsenal have joined long-time suitors Liverpool in expressing an interest in a forward who, at just 22, still has plenty of time on his side as he looks to belatedly live up to that frightening potential.
Interestingly, it was Arsenal’s former head of recruitment Sven Mislintat who handed Dembele his big break four years ago after a staggering breakthrough season at Rennes, describing the 2018 World Cup winner as a ‘really special player’ (Zeit).
If fit and firing, there is no doubt that Dembele can have a transformative impact on an Arsenal side who have slipped into Premier League mediocrity. But that, as Barcelona have discovered, is a giant, skyscraper-sized ‘if’.
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