Ousmane Dembele ultimatum: Barça want a decision

It’s an important week at Barcelona. They need to pull the financial levers that were activated by their socios last week. That will be selling 10 per cent of the television rights for 26 years, for a fee between 205 and 215 million euros. They can also announce the signings of Kessie and Christensen on free transfers, agreed months ago. They can seal Gavi’s signing, and negotiate Lewandowski’s arrival and Frenkie de Jong’s departure.

What is not up to them is the Ousmane Dembele case. They have made him a contract renewal offer and are waiting for his answer. His deal expires on June 30 and Barcelona want a response. The French forward will return from holiday and may met Xavi, with whom he has spoken in recent weeks, reiterating that he wants to stay at Camp Nou, albeit on a better deal than the one he has ben offered. A proposal that the club say they will not improve.

The coach could be important in the resolution of the case. Xavi likes Dembele a lot and wants him to stay. If the French forward stays then there is no need for Barcelona to invest in a replacement and they can use the money elsewhere; Jules Kounde is an expensive target and the money would be well used there. 

Xavi might ask for the club to make one more effort and improve the offer, while Dembele doesn’t seem to have many better options on the table either financially, although sign on fees are bigger elsewhere. Xavi might ask the club to raise their salary a little while asking Dembele to forgo the sign on fee.

Once Barcelona get the answer either way, they can accelerate or abandon deals for Raphinha and DI Maria, who are waiting. 

They club want an answer as soon as possible. If the deal is not signed within a coule of days then they may abandon the player and announce that he is leaving. They want to be the first to announce is departure if he is going.

So, everything is still open. It seems complicated for the Frenchman to stay, but not impossible. We will see, soon.