According to Spanish News outlet, Don Balon, Barcelona are fearful of their last summer signing, Ousmane Dembele turning into a flop and losing all his value in the transfer market. Arda Turan’s career can be taken as a sample and the Catalan giants want to make sure that the exact scenario does not replicate themselves.
It has also been said that no club other than Arsenal are ready to splash in a significant amount of money to get the Frenchman. Arsene Wenger might just be prepared to offer a high value but not the €105 m that Barcelona paid to get him from Borussia Dortmund.
Arsenal have through heavy transfer activity transfer window which saw 5 players including Alexis Sanchez make an exit while 3 were added. Out of the three were former Dortmund duo, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
They both have featured heavily under Wenger ever since their arrival and it seems like their chemistry has been one of the factors that have raised speculations over the Dembele transfer. Aubameyang played just one season with Dembele and ended up scoring 40 goals with the Frenchman fielded next to him either on the flanks or behind him in the attacking midfield position.
The Gabo international would be overjoyed to reunite with his former Bundesliga teammate but where will he fit in? Granted Dembele is a winger by trade, but he is a ball dominant one. The type of player Arsenal already has in Mkhitaryan, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere.
Dembele is a creative spark whose services, in all honesty, might not be best suited to the current team that Arsenal has.
Wenger’s biggest priority should be to get a winger and a centre-half. Arsenal’s defence has been one of their worst enemies this season with Wenger struggling to adapt to the back three formation. Laurent Koscielny has been far from impressive this season and his age is finally starting to show.
As for Dembele, he has spent most of the season so far away from the action with an injury scare. So it will be unfair for Barcelona to not give him enough chance to prove his worth and let him leave in the next transfer window only, especially given the amount of money and effort they had spent to acquire his services.
While the 20 year old Frenchman is a quality player with a lot of future promise, the transfer fee and the wages alone might be a bigger hassle for the North London club, not to mention the headache of forcing one of the players out of the club.
