This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
Ousmane Dembele’s career is definitely a rather strange one.
The now 22-year-old forward was a true star back at Borussia Dortmund where he emerged from his cocoon and caught the interest of European giants.
Barcelona ended up snatching the young Frenchman for a reported fee of £135.5m. Needless to say, splashing the cash for a largely unproven player at the beginning of his career and making him your second-highest transfer in the history of the club is a rather bold move – one that will seemingly come back to haunt them.
The 2019/20 campaign is Dembele’s third over in Catalonia and with only 74 games played for Blaugrana since his arrival a couple of years ago, the 22-year-old has been blowing hot and cold without any consistency.
Of course, injuries have more than just played their part as it seems like he’s spending more time in the hospital than on the pitches, already accumulating 18 missed games in the ongoing season with three different injuries to his name.
Since his arrival, he only managed to bang in 19 goals and considering the gigantic price that Barcelona paid to get him from Germany, this is simply not enough.
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More worryingly than that, it doesn’t look like it could suddenly change for the better in the near future.
But that’s where Pep Guardiola and Manchester City come in.
According to some recent reports from El Desmarque, the Citizens are the team most likely to fork out large sums of money in order to land their target.
The same source suggests Guardiola could be willing to give around €95m (£80.3m) for the young Frenchman – Barcelona should seriously consider it.
Sure, £80.3m is not really £135.5m but maybe it’s time for them to count their losses and surrender their talent to someone else.
By this point, City would probably be doing them a favour by taking Dembele off their hands.
Guardiola is someone who can mould young players and help them develop and maybe that’s exactly what the 22-year-old needs right now – a change of environment and a change in the approach.
It’s a deal all parties could potentially benefit from.
In other news, Barcelona should do everything to keep hold of another player who’s reportedly on Manchester United’s radar…
