Yesterday reports in France indicated that Ousmane Dembele was close to joining PSG and overnight we heard that he had agreed to a 5-year deal to join the French champions from Barcelona.
This is a big loss for Barca and Xavi, who reportedly working tirelessly to try and convince the French winger to stay, but the pull of home, and no doubt a meaty financial package, tempted Dembele away.
BREAKING: Ousmane Dembélé says yes to Paris Saint-Germain! Initial green light to the proposal has arrived 🚨🔴🔵
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 30, 2023
PSG verbally agreed five year deal with Dembélé’s agent.
PSG have sent formal letter to inform Barcelona, now trying best way to close the deal — depends on timing. pic.twitter.com/a0EE3iMEtf
If a player wants to leave, the best thing you can do is work to get the best deal possible for the team.
Football insider Fabrizio Romano confirmed that PSG has sent an official notice to Barcelona on the transfer, but the La Liga Champions have referred them to the €50 million release clause.
Just as a reminder, Dembele has a €50 million release clause that expires at midnight CEST tonight, which is 11 pm in the UK and 7 pm EST in the USA.
If PSG can’t finalise that release clause within the next 18 hours, and there is a belief in Paris that they won’t be able to do it so quickly, PSG must open negotiations with Barca on a transfer fee.
The new release clause will be €100 million, so if you’re a Barca fan, you’re hoping a deal doesn’t get done today so we can generate a higher transfer fee through negotiations.
Who should Barcelona sign to replace Ousmane Dembele?
Every single Barca account is asking the same question this morning, who with the Catalan giants sign to replace Dembele?
The answer? Nobody.
They should use the money generated to help facilitate a move for a new right back. According to Victor Melo, if PSG were to activate the release clause it would generate €16.75 million in fair play revenue.
Fabrizio Romano confirmed in his daily newsletter that Barca was looking to use that money to sign either Joao Cancelo from Manchester City or Ivan Fresneda from Valladolid.
If there is one area of the pitch where Barca has an excess of talent, it’s in the wide forward position.
Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres have both started pre-season well with Torres scoring two goals in two games.
Raphinha was often preferred last season and defensively he’ll put in more of a shift than Dembele, but the biggest winner here is Abde Ezzalzouli.
The young Moroccan has an outstanding first half against Arsenal, and he’s coming off the back of winning the 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations with the national team.
Xavi has been impressed with Abde’s performance and asked the management team to not sell him, and now with money being generated by Dembele, they won’t have to.
Losing a good player is always difficult, but you don’t want any player pulling on the shirt who doesn’t want to be here. It also opens up the possibilities for younger players to develop.
Three takeaways from Barcelona’s 3-0 win over Real Madrid
Barcelona beat rivals Real Madrid 3-0 in their second pre-season game and there were plenty of takeaways. We've picked out three to focus on.