Joan Laporta hopes that this superstar will remain at Barcelona
Barcelona is going through a tough financial situation at the moment and it will take them a couple of seasons before things are completely normalized. The former management led by Joseph Maria Bartomeu led the club to an insane debt of 1 billion euros and Joan Laporta has to fix that mess. However, in order to fix that, he has to lower wages and let a lot of players go. He has to make tough decisions and the players also have to agree to wage cut downs. There are some players who are not happy with the wage cuts however, most of them have agreed to the cuts and players like Adama Traore, Ferran Torres and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang have all taken massive reductions to move to Barca.
Ousmane Dembele however, is one of those who has not agreed to a wage cut. His contract is expiring soon and the club offered him a new contract but as expected, the wage was lower than his previous contract. This apparently did not suit his needs and he refused to sign the contract until his wage demands were met. The club then tried to sell and there was a bit of animosity between the club and the player. Being unable to sell him, he is still in the club and Xavi Hernandez plans on using him regardless of his drama with the club. His brilliant performance against Athletic Bilbao prompted the president to mention his case again. He said at the Mobile World Congress,
"“Dembele knows our proposal and we’ve always wanted him to stay, we’ll see if at the end of the season he thinks about it again,”Source Sport"
Xavi has made it very clear that he loves the player and wants him to stay and Dembele himself does not want to join another club. He did have the option to join Chelsea in the winter transfer season however, he chose to stick with Barca.
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Maybe deep down he still wants to broker out a new deal with the club however, he needs to understand that the new wage cap rule and Barca’s financial turmoil prevents them from giving him the salary that he desires. Unless he can understand this, he will not be able to negotiate a new contract with the club.