According to Sport, FC Barcelona are ready to splash €125 million along with two players in Ivan Rakitic and Ousmane Dembele, in the deal to sign Neymar. Paris Saint-Germain were keen on securing the services of Dembele and Barca; it seems, have agreed to offload the Frenchman. But, this is only temporarily, meaning the winger would leave on loan. As for Rakitic, he will leave the club permanently.
This could be a masterstroke by Barcelona for multiple reasons, though it comes down to whether or not PSG accepts the offer.
Rakitic’s demise at Barcelona
Rakitic had initially joined Barcelona back in 2014, in an €18 million move from Sevilla. He has since become one of the most ever-present figures in the starting lineup, having made 269 competitive appearances with the Blaugrana. During his ongoing five year spell at the club, the Croatian international has won one Champions League, four La Liga titles and three Copa Del Rey.
That being said, the addition of players like Arthur Melo and recently, Frenkie de Jong has taken a massive toll on Rakitic’s first-team chances. It’s rather needless to say that Barcelona are now preparing for the future and these two players will be essential. Hence, they must get a taste of regular first-team football from now on.
But at the same time, it could significantly reduce the importance of Rakitic in the Barcelona setup. Therefore, a move away from Catalonia makes sense, especially to PSG, who have lost Adrien Rabiot this summer.
Dembele’s loan could help
Dembele has never really managed to make a telling difference at Camp Nou, since coming from Borussia Dortmund in a big-money move in 2017. This is mainly due to his injury problems. During his debut campaign, the Frenchman had suffered an unfortunate hamstring injury that kept him out for almost four months.
But even then, it has been difficult for Dembele to thrive due to so much competition in the Barcelona attack. He has, in fact, mustered a combined total of just over 2,500 minutes of league football during his ongoing two-year spell at the club.
A loan move to PSG, in that regard, could be logical. The French giants will be fresh from losing Neymar and should be needing a new attacker, allowing Dembele to become a prominent part of the first-team. Besides, he will also reunite with Thomas Tuchel, who was instrumental in his rise at BVB.
For Barcelona, however, the prospect of Neymar potentially returning to Catalonia could be a massive boost, especially with Lionel Messi nearing the final stage of his career. But, a lot will depend on whether or not there will be an option to buy clause embedded in Dembele’s loan deal.
Either way, both the deals make sense for Barcelona and for an additional fee of €125 million, it’s only fair to assume that the Spanish champions could turn out to be real winners, should this deal materialise.
