According to Sport, Ousmane Dembele is now willing to take a pay cut in order to stay at Barcelona, despite interest from Tottenham and Newcastle.
What’s the story?
Well, by the sounds of it, the £135.5m man has no intention of working under Antonio Conte or Eddie Howe next season.
Sport believe the France international is now happy to accept a pay cut to stay at the Camp Nou, despite being offered more money by other clubs.
Dembele finds himself out of contract in June, and he seemed set to become one of the most attractive free agents on the market just a few weeks ago.
During the January transfer window, Mateu Alemany – Director of Football at Barcelona – told the Frenchman to “leave immediately” as the 24-year-old dragged his heels over a contract extension.
Dembele was even booed by the Barcelona supporters, after he failed to leave the Camp Nou.
Now, the £287,000-a-week man seems to have turned his situation around under Xavi, which is bad news for Spurs and the Magpies.
It was Foot Mercato who revealed that Tottenham and Newcastle are keen to sign the former Borussia Dortmund winger.
Tottenham and Newcastle shouldn’t worry
In our view, this isn’t really such bad news for Tottenham and Newcastle.
Before Xavi arrived in December, Dembele had done very little at Barcelona, and was in fact a huge flop having cost £135.5m.
Since the Spaniard took over from Ronald Koeman, there have been flashes of the Frenchman’s brilliance as he scored one goal and provided nine assists across seven La Liga outings.
However, there remain plenty of question marks about Dembele, specifically when it comes to his fitness – he has missed 103 games for Barcelona due to injuries.
Therefore, it would make sense for Conte and Howe to explore other attacking targets, as a move for Dembele now seems to carry far too many complications.
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