Barcelona’s director of football
, Mateu Alemany, affirmed this Thursday that Ousmane Dembélé “must leave immediately” after not accepting the renewal offers offered by the club.
“It seems obvious to us that the player does not want to continue at Barcelona and is not committed to Barça’s future project, In this scenario, he and his agents have been told that he must leave immediately,” Mateu Alemany told the Barça club’s media.
The Barça football director recalled that, since July, “We have spoken, we have dialogued, Barça has made different offers, We tried to find a way for the player to continue with us”.
“Those offers have been systematically rejected by their agents.“, affirmed Alemany, who deduces from these rejections that the player does not want to continue at Barça.
“We want players committed to this project and therefore we expect a transfer to take place before January 31” when the market closes, said Alemany.
Out of the Cup match
The player has not been summoned “by technical decision” with the Barça club to play the round of 16 match of the Copa del Rey this Thursday in Bilbao.
“We do not want to have players not committed to the project and that they don’t want to be at Barça and therefore the fact that they are not called up is nothing more than a consequence of this whole process”, explained Alemany.
For the Barça manager, the decision to leave Dembélé in Barcelona is the power of coach Xavi Hernández, but “he has all our support, our support and we understand it perfectly, it seems to us an absolutely coherent attitude“added the Barca manager.
Xavi had already shown a certain weariness with the Dembélé case on Wednesday at the press conference prior to the match against Athletic Bilbao.
“The message is clear: either one solution or another, either renew or look for an exit solution for the player, we have no other option”, the Barça coach had affirmed.
“More confidence has been impossible to give, he has played every possible minute since I have been a coach“added Xavi, who since his arrival on the Barça bench has always opted for the French winger.
But as a club man, the Barça coach also stated that “We have reached a point where we have to decide. The player should also think a bit about the team, about the club.”
High economic claims
According to the Spanish press, Dembélé and his agent would have put on the table some economic pretensions exorbitant for a team that remains under financial strain.
The player’s agent would have demanded “200 million euros for a five-year contract, plus a 40 million renewal premium (20 for Dembélé and 20 for the manager)”, according to the Catalan newspaper Sport.
Xavi affirms that the player has shown him his desire to stay, but the statements to the media by his representative Moussa Sissoko seem to go in the opposite direction.
Asked about the reason for this apparent divergence, Xavi stated on Wednesday that “I also ask myself that question, is a question for him”.
Llegacy in 2017 to Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund, Dembélé’s journey at Barça has been hampered by injuries.
Four and a half seasons at Barça, Dembélé has played 129 games in which he has scored 31 goals and provided 23 assists.
The player still has several months ahead where he could risk ending up in the stands if he does not come out in this market.
