Barça coach Xavi is very disappointed with Ousmane Dembélé
The Frenchman assured him last week that he longed to win the Champions League with Barça; after the clásico, however, he broke his word
The departure of Ousmane Dembélé was not in FC Barcelona's plans, and the most disappointed partaker with the Frenchman's decision to sign for PSG is Xavi Hernández. The coach defended the Frenchman the most and bet on him when no one believed in the El Mosquito's ability to recover as a player.
Xavi counted on Dembélé as one of the key pieces of the squad, especially on the offensive end of the pitch. Dembélé's versatility, speed and one-on-one ability were to be, once again, one of the team's most important weapons.
The confidence was regained and the preseason impressions seemed very good. Last week the player had confessed to him, in one of his talks, that after having recovered the path of titles and having won the League in the previous season now his greatest desire was to conquer the Champions League with Barça.
However, after the victory in the Dallas derby against Real Madrid, the bombshell went off in the team's training camp. Dembélé told Xavi and his staff that he wanted to leave the Barça team and join PSG.
Once the crisis was unleashed, the coach and player chatted on a couple of occasions, to confirm that he considered him a key piece of his scheme and that he wanted him in the squad to try that incursion on the Champions League. However, Ousmane seems determined to play at the Parc des Princes next season.
"Remember Neymar..."
Xavi went so far as to give as an example Neymar Jr. who, also on a Barça tour of the United States in 2017, forced his departure to PSG in exchange for the 222 million clause, the very move that brought Dembélé and Philippe Coutinho to the Camp Nou.
Since then, the calls from Neymar trying to return to Barça have been persistent. He has been disappointed with his experience at PSG and longing for the sporting and personal well-being he had had at Camp Nou. Some of his manoeuvres to return have provoked deep crises at PSG.
But neither this nor the rest of the arguments served to convince Dembélé who has made up his mind that next season he will play at PSG. All that remains is for the clubs to close a deal to make the transfer as atraumatic as possible, and for Barça executives to find the replacement that the coach has requested.
