Nothing seems to be going Barcelona’s way this summer, as they’re still trying to come to terms with the mega-money departure of Neymar who joined Paris Saint-Germain in a shocking €222 million deal.
Replacing a player of his stature is no easy task, and Ernesto Valverde probably didn’t anticipate it would be this difficult in luring players to join the Catalan giants, especially when you consider the worldwide appeal of the Spanish side.
TOUGH SUMMER
Despite that, they’ve endured a frustrating summer in terms of landing their targets as only Gerard Deulofeu, Nelson Semedo and Paulinho have arrived at Camp Nou, and it’s clear that they’re not the type of marquee signings the Barca fans will be happy with.
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They’ve continued to hit a brick wall in the Philippe Coutinho deal with Liverpool standing firm and refusing to give in, even though the Blaugrana were ready to fork out over £100 million for the Brazil international.
They haven’t made great progress in the Ousmane Dembele deal either.
While the 20-year-old winger might have made it his mission to force through an exit, Borussia Dortmund haven’t taken too kindly to the developments in this saga.
The France international desperately wants to leave and even went on strike from training, prompting the German side to suspend him and revealed that they held initial discussions with Barca to hammer out a deal – but they fell well short of their valuation for their prized asset.
DEADLINE
Since then, the Bundesliga side have admitted that they’d be prepared to sell, but only if Barcelona match their valuation which is thought to be around £110 million, but Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke recently accused Barca of manipulating the want-away former Rennes star in a bid to force them to sell.
Now, they’ve issued Barca a deadline to strike a deal in the hope that they can put this all to bed.
German outlet Bild is claiming that Dortmund have informed Barcelona that their aggressive pursuit must result in an official bid, or they’d be forced to withdraw their interest as Dortmund won’t be selling him and will insert him back in their team.
The report goes on to claim that the Spanish club has until Sunday to launch an offer, and if no agreement is reached by the end of the week then Dortmund will refuse to sell – so they’ll have to make sure that their follow-up bid is close to their valuation, otherwise they’ll be missing out on another top target.
Will Barcelona succeed in signing Ousmane Dembele? Have YOUR say in the comments section below.
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